Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2

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!

EA rushed Popcap to make this game, so there's a lot of unused and unfinished content... and tons of leftovers from the previous game!

Prerelease Info

Resources#

Debugging MaterialPut this back in, Jeff! Unused GraphicsUnused abilities, quest items, spotting icons, you name it. Unused AnimationsLeftovers from the first game, plus some interesting moves for everyone new! Unused Weapon DataAll sorts of things to shoot the enemy with that never actually got deployed for battle. Unused BossesBoss Hunted to extinction and then some. Unused SummonsHow does it feel to be both used and unused? Unused AudioSome interesting sounds and some funky tunes! Unused TextJust a little bit of reading won't hurt! Revisional DifferencesThe battlefield is an ever-growing theater.

Very Early Mock-Up#

Found in the files of the game is what appears to be a mock-up of an very early version of the game. From here, several differences can be seen.

• The background resembles that of Garden Warfare, though with slight differences, such as the sky being bluer instead of purple.
• The ability icons are still the ones from Garden Warfare and also have no border and are a bit smaller than in the final game. Strangely, both the Dummy Shield and the Shield Decoy are equipped, when they are both ability variants of each other and are thus impossible to have at the same time.
• The All-Star appears to have a slightly different design, such as a different decal on his jersey. He is also in a different pose, and his weapon is nowhere to be seen.
• The 8 classes on the side are all All-Star, reusing the icon from Garden Warfare, excluding the one at the very bottom, which is Dr. Zomboss's head, likely for the cut Boss Mode.
  • Similarly, all of the All-Star's variants are the Wrestling-Star variant, with a completely different icon style
• Three orange balls of unknown significance are seen next to the player's name, most likely the predecessor of Rank Plates.
• Below the level up section of the UI is 5 segments, with the 3rd one being blue. This indicates that there were originally just 5 levels of promotion instead of 6 in the final game.
  • Also, despite presumably being at the mid stage of promotion, All-Star is already at Master. There were also no unique plates for each level of promotion and were just simple text. The bar was also originally purple instead of yellow.
  • Also in the level up UI section, a Hall of Stats area is mentioned, which is nowhere to be seen in the final game. This may be referring to the Stats Boards seen inside the plant and zombie bases seen in the final game. The description also mentions a cut trainer character who would presumably show the player their stats, while in the final game, the Stickerbook shows their stats, like in Garden Warfare.
• Near the bottom left corner are 3 bars with a heart, explosion, and arrows at the left of them. This was likely to show the player each class's health, strength, and speed, but nothing like this appears in the final game.
• Several button prompt placements were changed before the final game, such as the Customize button prompt being near the list of abilities instead of at the bottom. There is also no option to view quests yet. The button graphics are also different from the final game, being more flat and less detailed.
• Interestingly, 8 playable characters, excluding Boss Mode, can be seen, when there were only 7 playable zombie classes were available at launch. While the Trials of Gnomus update did add the Hover Goat-3000 as a class, it seems like there was plans to include an additional new class for both Plants and Zombies at launch.
• An unused description for the All-Star can be seen:

The All-Star is the go-to choice for clobbering your Plant enemies! The basic All-Star can be equipped with a football cannon, spike cleats, and more!

• Interestingly, this description mentions the All-Star's spiky cleats, which may imply they may have had a larger role in his playstyle, possibly an unused ability or passive of some sorts, as only the Bezerker variant (who isn't a playable variant of the all-star class) has the spiky cleats.
• All-Star's name is incorrectly spelled as "All-Stars."

Unused Classes#

A few unused classes are present in the game.

Giga Gargantuar/"HeroGarg"#

Watch on YouTube

Giga Gargantuar is a very unfinished class most likely used for testing purposes or was in its early stages of becoming playable. It uses a copy of Foot Soldiers kit and has all of his abilities, though it has a primary of its own, along with a massive health pool of 3400. Rocket jump does not seem to work on this class due to it lacking a component that supports it. Strangely, despite being labelled as "Giga Gargantuar" and using his character blueprint, it uses the standard Gargantuar costume, though it is likely either a mistake on the developers behalf, or the class was in its very early stages and was just thrown together in a haste.

One interesting observation regarding this "classes" existence, is that its primary is located under the directory of "_playablebosses", so its possible that torchwood might not have been the only boss they made into a playable form, especially given this "class" is recognized within the internal data checks for the crazy targets range under the list of classes it checks for.

A lot of animations have been found referencing a "HeroGarg" which also involves the quick swinging animations as well as locomotion animations for properly running. Whats interesting is that a select few of these animations are actually used by the Gargantuar bosses themselves, instead of their animations from the previous game. These animations likely would've been used by this class, had Popcap actually completed him and made him a playable character.

Weapons#

• Giga Power Pole - A modified copy of the boss version of Giga Power Pole. Deals 100 damage per shot, and has 200 ammo. Has partially set up overheat data that never goes used due to the weapon never generating any heat. Uses giga gargantuar sounds, although it doesn't make him perform the power pole animation due to incorrect weapon configuration. Doesn't have an actual name although it has an unused used string ID that it uses as its name.

(whilst the video claims it deals 300 damage per shot, this is due to an oversight in how the projectile blueprint is set up because of an enabled setting)

Laser Goats#

Watch on YouTube

The Laser Goats are an unfinished goat class that was going to appear in the scrapped Mystery Portal mode "Team Vanquish Goats". They have the physics of a regular goat and the ability to double jump. The Plant version is called Laser Mohawk and has green armor, while the Zombie version is called Laser Horns and 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 ability borrowed from the Hover-Goat 3000 class.
• 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, but waits a set duration before going of. The explosion deals 10 damage and causes knockback.

None of their weapons have actual names (except the buff beam which is directly borrowed from hovergoat), so they use their respective string ID's as their display name.

Unused Characters#

Ice Sunflower Variant#

In the Great White North stage at the 2nd point. There are various ice sculptures placed around the objective, with a winner that depicts an Ice Sunflower. This variant is never seen in any of the games and nothing else exists in terms of internal data for it, suggesting either this variant was cut very early on and used purely for aesthetic purposes, or its data was all removed before release.

Berry Shooter#

One of the 4 sponsored characters from the first game. Obviously not available in the second game due to him being brand associated but a surprisingly amount of his assets are still around in GW2's files, including his primary (Albeit the weapon name has been disconnected), string ID's, name, puzzle piece leftovers, sounds, and even some textures from a part of his head are still present. Given the notable similarities between Rock Pea and Berry Shooter, it is likely assumed that he was cloned and used as a base for Rock Pea.

Citrus Cactus#

Another sponsored character. Much like Berry Pea, Citrus cactus still has a lot of its assets still around, the same amount as Berry Shooter. However because the game runs on a new version of frosty, her primary weapon has broken in the lack of delay between bursts.

Chester Chomper#

One of the 2 characters that came out of the Cheetos collab from the first game. Out of all the sponsored characters he pulled the short straw in how much his remaining assets broke. His primary has broken in that it can now be relentlessly spammed constantly, and his Chesterweed ability seems to now trigger on everyone but not apply the snare at all. Cheesy goop is the only ability that seems to have remained largely intact, only having mild visual errors. None of the weapons or abilities have their names attached as their meta data has been disconnected.

Dr. Chester#

The only sponsored zombie collab, and surprisingly, the one who's assets go used the most in this game! All weapons retain their names, functionality, and visuals with only minor errors, but he is fully functional. His sounds go used for a lot of unrelated cases, being used in weapons for Captain Smasher, Scallywag Imp, Future Dummy, a fax manner machine (yes really), and ironically, the Zoologist variant, which many consider to be is replacement with how similar they are. I guess even Popcap wanted to keep the cheesy little guy around!

The 3 upgrades he has from the first game are still around, and interestingly enough, not only were they updated to use the new UI system GW2 uses, but his damage and reload upgrades were given actual multiplier values instead of being purely for show.

Unused Costumes#

Additional Zombie Costumes#

In the directory for the UI customization set ups for all of the playable character cosmetics, within the files for all of the zombies classes, are files related to a costume tab. Whilst normally this tab is only used for hovergoat, strangely every zombie class gets one, and interestingly, engineer has 2 entries in his, pointing to a "Welder" costume and "Default" which also come with associated unused graphics. Both graphics however are just a full body render of the engineer.

Engineer costume & "Welder" Costume.

Unused Character effects/buffs#

Lots of characters have buffs meant for them that were never used in any capacity. Either that, or they're leftovers from what they were testing or from garden warfare 1 mechanics.

• Zen Cactus Default health/speed upgrades - In the directory for Zen Cactus's primary weapon, are 2 default upgrades that are applied to Zen Cactuses primary, being a default health and speed upgrade. These are normally used by armoured variants to grant them their extra health/slower speeds, though the values for her default upgrades are set to 1, so they don't actually do anything. The upgrades also go under Jade cactus's name, likely suggesting Zen Cactus was going to be a 3rd armoured variant in the cactus class.

• Breakfast Brainz Default health upgrade - In the directory for Breakfast Brainz's primary weapon are 2 default upgrades. The speed one is used by him in game, and although the health one is assigned to him, it never does anything since its multiplier is set to 1. A leftover from when he was first added in the trouble in Zombopolis DLC where he did have 175 health before it was increased to 200.

• Giga Torchwood Bezerk armour - Giga Torchwood's bezerk form has an unused buff associated with it that suggests it was going to grant him armour alongside the speed boost. Likely scrapped since having a boss gain both speed and armour whilst also doing dealing fire damage may have been far too much to deal with. interestingly, he seemed to have armour as a part of his bezerk state back at the E3 presentation.

• GigaTorchwoodChargeMode - Giga Torchwoods charge mode that is supposed to be used by his charge attack. Applies big stumps knockback.

• Hypno Sunflower Queen Spores - There is an unused buff effect under the name "HypnoSunflowerQueenSpores" that would have dealt 3 damage over time. This is likely supposed to be a part of the Hypno Sunflower Queens primary weapon, given its VFX upon the projectile landing are very similar to the likes of the Alien Flower variant.

• Big Stump Armour - In Big Stumps soldier file, there is a buff under the name "TorchwoodHarden" that comes in 3 stages. Each stages provides more armour than the last. The soldier file is set up to keep track of these buffs although they are never given to him in any normal game circumstances. Given the multiple stage set up, an educated guess would suggest that Big Stump was supposed to gain more armour the closer he was to death.

• Gargantuar Bezerk - Strangely, attached to Captain Smashers soldier file is a buff named "GargantuarBezerk" that never gets used. The buff when applied, would've granted gargantuar a 50% speed increase until he left the bezerk form. Given how much data exists for giga gargantuar exists in him having a bezerk like state, either this buff was meant for him, or it hints at the regular gargantuar getting one as well.

• DiscoInferno - This buff is related to disco zombies unused bezerk form. When granted to him, it would grant a 20% speed increase as well as grant access to his disco inferno related weapons. Doesn't have any visuals assigned to it so not clear when he engages it.

• PirateGargCannonSlam - Knockback buff meant for Captain Smashers primary, also deals an additional 25 damage.

• TorchwoodChargeDamage - Likely meant for either Giga Torchwood or Big Stumps to inflict against enemies if they happened to run into them whilst charging. Deals 10 damage along with a lot of horizontal knockback.

• SasquatchGroundStomp - Attached to sasquatches unused ground stomp weapon. Apply's yeti's knockback.

• Mallet Gnome Knockback - In the directory for where all the buffs are stored, is an unused one related to mallet gnomes related to knockback. This suggests that upon being hit, the mallet gnomes would've done a slight amount of knockback to the user upon hitting them with it.

• Torchwood Mortar Mode - Related to the playable torchwood, is a buff that specifies a "Mortar Mode", Whilst mortar is the internal name for his flame breath weapon, this seems to suggest that earlier on it was something different entirely, maybe a version of the fire storm move built for the normal torchwood?

• CitronOrangeLaser - Likely related to Citrons primary given its name. Would gradually apply a 50% damage buff as you fired the weapon more and more, presumably a leftover from Citron's old weapon given one of the gameplay showcase videos from 2015 seems to have the buff in action with his primary gradually increasing in damage. Is bugged in that it applies the damage buff multiple times resulting in wildly inconsistent numbers.

• ElectricityPunchKnockback - Likely related to Electro Brainz. Data suggests he was planned to have knockback alongside his chain lightning damage.

• ChargingMode_NecroRose - Unused charging state buff meant specifically for Nec'rose. Lacks an input restrictor so either unfinished or she was supposed to be more free with actions when it came with charging.

• ReverseGravZone - This buff is likely either a leftover from testing, or an early version of the Gravity Grenade ability for the imp class. Affected enemies slowly fly upwards and... don't come back down.

• EnsnaredZone - Old buff that was meant for time snare before it got replaced by a new one.

• HoverGoatJumpCharge - A buff related to HoverGoat that would've likely been a part of his jump physics. Changes gravity to be only 10% when active.

• ImpDrakeMode - Would've been used by the drake mech to show a stamina meter related to him. Interestingly its duration is set to be 2 minutes, double the duration it has currently.

• ImpN7MechMode - Like the drake mech, would've been used to show a stamina meter related to him. Also has a duration of 2 minutes.

• ImpShrimpMode - Same as previous two, but for shrimp.

• ImpPylonMode - You get the idea, same as everyone else.

• ImpRobotMode - Is like every other mech mode, except its duration is only 5 seconds as opposed to 2 minutes.

• WeedKnockback - A buff presumably meant for normal weeds in them being able to apply a slight amount of knockback to you, and disarm abilities like bolt blaster, Impkata, etc. Graveyard ops would have been, far less enjoyable if they could do that.

• SpeedBuffRadiator - This is what flag zombies back in the first game were assigned to use, granting all of those who stood near him a 25% speed increase (how kind). For some reason they were changed to be like flag weeds in them granting armour instead.

• Cactus_FutureNut_CoverBuff - A buff that would've been used along with the cactus's scrapped future nut ability. Gives a 15% damage buff and uses hovergoat damage buff booster beam vfx. One of the few leftovers remaining of future nut given the ability itself would be removed in later versions.

• ScaredyArmorBuff - Scaredy shroom does use armour when enemies get too close, but there's a copy of this buff that goes unused. Interestingly it provides an 80% dmg resistance as opposed to the 70% he has currently.

• DashPunchMode - Some sort of speed buff that briefly grants 7 times movement speed. Uncertain who it would've been used for.

• TechnoShieldMode_HoverGoat - Unused buff meant for back when Hovergoat was going to get a shield. The buff likely would've functioned like citrons shield in being used as a tracker when to show the shield.

• RaceChomperSpeedBuff - Likely meant for the Delivery Chomper. Given this buffs existence, it was likely the delivery missions originally just used the original Chomper files before they made a copy specifically for the pizza delivery mode.

• RaceGoatSpeedBuff - Ditto but for the Delivery Goat.

• StuffySunflower - Unused buff associated with the Stuffy Sunflower variant. Applies a blue shader and if the player hits an enemy enough times rapidly, it triggers a small explosion that deals 20 damage. Also has vfx associated with the buff that go unused.

• SingularityDamage_Outer_Red - Meant for the red singularity in making its outer damage more threatening... as if that one didn't already deal enough damage.

• TurtleDefenseBuff - Some kind of buff that applies a significant speed penalty and makes coffin/outhouse/barrel zombies and vase weeds to perform an unused animation in them retracting their limbs inside their armour. Is associated with an unused behavior file that's attached to them, though the behavior is disabled.

• BuffBubble_HoverGoat - Buff for an old weapon of hovergoats. Grants all allies within close proximity to him a 25% damage buff. It also grants himself a 10% damage increase, as well as debuffing nearby enemies by reducing their damage, though Hovergoat himself would also slow down.

• SuperWhirlwindKnockback - Old buff meant for Super Brainz's Turbo Twister. Would've occasionally dealt 35 damage along with knocking enemies back. Can be seen as a part of the weapon in old showcase videos as the game was in development.

• CitronBallBurstKnockback - Unused buff meant for the default citron ball. Deals 15 damage along with minimal knockback.

• CitronBallDashLvl1 - Some kind of buff related to citron's spin dash ability. Applies knockback along with 25 damage.

• CitronBallDashLvl2 - Ditto but an upgraded version of it.

• PunchKnockback1/2/3 - Multiple buffs across different states that given their names, would've likely been meant for SB's melee attack. The first one is in Giga Gargantuars unused charge attack for some reason, likely a placeholder.

• BossHunt_Yeti_EnchantedTwinkle - Buff that puts multiple shiny effects, presumably on Yeti King.

• BossHunt_Yeti_GummyTwinkle - Ditto but gummy vfx.

• BossSpawnKnockback - Not to be confused with the one used in boss hunts. This one seems to have possibly been for all regular bosses, although strangely applies sasquatch knockback with a massive 50m radius.

• AI_IceSoldier - A copy of artic troopers freeze buff but specifically meant for the AI version of his weapon. Interestingly, not only is it used by the Ai version of Goalie Star, but also the speed penalty is much harsher compared to playable ice variants.

• AISprintTackleMode - Ditto but for the unused AI version of sprint tackle meant exclusively for AI All-Stars. Interesting observation can be made in that when activated it not only dispels normal and super sticky goop, but also has its knockback and damage in one buff as opposed to two separate ones.

• AISprintTackleKnockback - Attached to the "AISprintTackleMode" buff. Deals 32 damage and some knockback.

• ImpkataTestBuff - Likely an early version of Impkata. Deal 5 damage and interestingly dispels a lot of plant abilities.

• ArmourPeached - Buff specifically for the unused armour piercing peach weapon. Is directly the same as Empeach so was likely scrapped before they could change anything.

• ArmourPeachBonusDamage - Ditto but for the damage overtime. Interesting it would've dealt 5 damage every half a second as opposed to the standard Empeach's 3 damage.

• ImitatorSpeedBuff - A 5x speed buff that is likely for the Imitator. Is used in his behaviour to be made invisible to have him stay near his imitation. Also disabled character collision whilst it's active.

• IsMimic - A buff primarily used as an identifier for if the AI is a mimic of Imitator.

• BossHunt_PumpkinSquash_SugarRushAura - A version of sugar rush that would've acted similar to the buff you get in the Yeti king boss hunt. Grants the same damage buff but also dispels any fire damage spooky is doing to the user.

• FireBreathPumpkinSquash - Fire damage overtime on the flame breath. This goes unused because whilst it is on the weapon blueprint for his flame breath attack... it's not actually assigned to the spray itself. If anything Popcap somehow tried to make it, apply to Spooky himself?

Unused Miscellaneous effects/buffs#

• SpecialWave_Speedy - Likely meant for a special wave in Garden Ops that gave all enemies spawned a 40% speed increase.

• SpecialWave_Toxic - Likely meant for a special wave in Garden Ops that gave all enemies spawned a toxic aura.

• SpecialWave_Invulnerable - Likely meant for a special wave in ops that makes all enemies become white, move 50% faster, and instantly kill you if their within close proximity... this seems more like an arbitrary difficulty spike than a special wave.

• HUBCornMission_ToxicGarg - Related to the mission where you obtain the Nuke Juice. Seems directed at garg, and if given to him, makes him 3 times larger and green... sounds oddly familiar.

• SiegeMode - Some unused buff related to a "SiegeMode" that both plants and zombies have. Given other weapons and VFX exist related to whatever this "SiegeMode" is, it might be its own game mode.

• BarrierDamageLow - A buff related to some kind of barrier. Found in the directory "GraveyardOps_Barrier_Prototye".

• BarrierSpeedNerf - Another buff found under the aforementioned directory.

• Counterizer_Powerup - In the directory for "Level_Jordan_Sandbox", there are various buffs labelled under the name "Counterizer". The buffs include a regenetation buff, speed, jump height, and ability reset. Might have ties to the unused arena gamemode from GW1 given the calls for one of its buffs.

• DamageBonusSpread - Unused buff with unknown purpose. Reuses sunflower heal beam effects.

• GiantBulldozePermanent - Unused buff that given its name, may possibly have been meant for the giants summoned in infinity time. Was likely left unused given there are no destructible objects in infinity time.

• SuperAITargetingBuff - Likely an older version of the buff that gets used when the player enters the opposing factions base, as it functions exactly the same.

• Puzzle_Entrance_Knockback - Unknown where it would've been used. Applies a knockback force to the user inflicted.

• Prototype_Boat_Launcher - Leftover from GW1. Its name has... interesting implications.

• Arena Powerups - Leftovers from GW1, being of all the powerups that would've been used in the games unused "arena" mode. Buffs range from resetting abilities, to armour, to super jumps etc.

Unused AI behaviors#

• BT_Tactic_MultiWarp - A behaviour for Baron Von Batz thats turned off in his base behaviour tree. The instructions tell his AI to... warp rapidly 6 times in rapid succession. Would've made him very evasive if this was enabled.

• BT_Tactic_DiscoInferno - Behaviour for Disco zombie thats turned off in his base behaviour tree. Engages his unfinished berserk disco inferno state.

• BT_Tactic_MovementSquad - Behaviour thats turned off in the general movement behaviour that most standard AI use. Has a complex set up that involves the AI assigning a "SquadLeader" and grouping up, likely was turned off for making ops possibly too difficult with enemies grouping up.

• BT_Tactic_GigaTorchwoodChargeAttack - Behaviour thats turned off in the main berserk behaviour for Giga Torchwood. Does the standard initiation behaviour in making him stand still for a moment before moving to his target at sprinting speed.

• BT_Tactic_GnomeSingularityMovement - Set up for how the singularity would move. Goes unused because the base behaviour tree its in also goes unused.

• BT_Tactic_SuperChiliBeanTeleport - Unused tactic behaviour to do a teleport behaviour. Goes unused since the base behaviour also goes unused.

• BT_Task_TurtleDefence - Task Behaviour meant for enemies that are fully encased in armour. Tells them to apply the turtle defence buff for 4 seconds before telling them to unapply it. Turned off in the main behavior tree

• BT_Weapon_GigaLightningStrike - Weapon behaviour for the unused lightning strike in giga gargantuar's kit. Is turned off likely since the weapon wasn't finished.

• BT_Weapon_DancePose - Weapon behaviour for the unused dance pose weapon in Disco zombies kit. Again, likely turned off since the weapon isn't finished.

• BT_Weapon_SummonBackupDancers - Weapon behaviour for the unused summon back up dancers weapon. Like usual, turned off since its not finished, although interestingly some of its set up is used by other summon behaviours so in a technical sense it's not directly unused, just, indirectly... I think.

• BT_Weapon_DeploySingularityShield - Weapon behaviour related to the singularity shield weapon thats in their kit file. Like the movement behaviour, it goes unused because the base behaviour tree goes unused.

• BT_Weapon_ImitatorSummon - Weapon behaviour that goes unused with the unused Imitator. Makes him pick one of the 4 summon weapons when he's above a quarter of his health.

• BT_Weapon_KillMimicArmor - Weapon behaviour that... doesn't specify any weapon... and tell's the imitated version of the boss to kill itself when it reaches half health, as well as calling for the real imitator to show back up.

• BT_Char_GGnomeSingularity - Base behaviour set up for the singularity enemies in Infinity time. Doesn't go used since all the singularities use an override, making this behaviour go unused.

• BT_Char_PSuperChiliBean - Base behaviour for the Super Chili Bean. Goes unused since the boss itself also goes unused.

• BT_Char_ZWolf - Base behaviour for the Wolf Mech. Like Chili Bean, because the boss itself is unused, the behaviour also goes unused.

• BT_Status_PumpkinSquashHealth - Whilst this behaviour is enabled in his main behaviour tree set up, it doesn't do anything outside of setting parameters that sasquatch also uses to engage certain stages of his boss fight, but given none of this set up is in his boss hunt level, nothing actually happens. Perhaps a bit more was supposed to happen during the tale of the Spooky Squash?

• BT_Status_PupAndWolfHealth - Unused boss hunt health status behaviour for wolf. Interestingly despite only being for wolf, pup is named in this behaviour as well.

Unused Character Upgrades#

CharUpgrade_Dimmer#

The existence of this graphic suggests it was not meant to be a character upgrade, but a part of the upgrade UI, as some left over data suggests it was meant to be a part of the upgrade UI, though due to a lack of connections, it doesn't go used.

Rate of Fire Upgrade#

Whilst no file actually exists, oddly Garden Warfare 2 does support a rate of fire upgrade type, and is fully functional as well in doing exactly as it says.

Unused Game Modes#

Taco Bandits#

In the launch release of the game up until the December 2018 update, the original Taco Bandits game mode and all of its assets were present in the game. While most of the game mode works fine, most of the issues are in its presentation, as it uses an off-centered broken UI element and has no proper end of round animation like other modes. Reading the mode's logic implies that PopCap updated the game mode, making it easier for them to set it up compared to the previous entry. It is not known why the game mode was never used. It was replaced by the Capture the Taco mode in the December 2018 update.

Unnamed Suburbination Gnome Intervention variant#

An unused variant of the Suburbination game mode added shortly after launch. This may have possibly been an unused Mystery Portal mode that never came to fruition. It plays like Suburbination, but every so often Gnomes will intervene and disable a capture point for a certain amount of time. It has a few issues, such as Suburbinations not stopping when a new point is enabled. Watch on YouTube

Buff Burger Vanquish Confirmed#

An unused variant of the Vanquish Confirmed game mode where a burger would appear in the middle of the map, making the player who interacted with it basically invincible at the cost of being extremely slow. It was added in the Frontline Fighters DLC and is only supported on Frontline Flats. Likely an unused Mystery Portal mode. PopCap would later iterate on this concept twice during the Tale of the Taco event with Farewell Taco, and later in Battle for Neighborville with the Crystal Dog weekly mode.

Team Vanquish Goats#

An unused variant of the Team Vanquish game mode where players would play as the Laser Goat characters mentioned prior. It was intended to be a Mystery Portal game mode, and would have been released in the Frontline Fighters DLC. All maps that support regular Team Vanquish support the mode except for the Backyard Battleground used in Capture the Taco. According to Justin Wiebe on Twitter, the creative director of the game, the mode was meant to be an alternative to Cats vs. Dinos, intended to prevent fatigue of that mode.

Propulsive Salsa#

Another unused variant of the Team Vanquish game mode, intended for the Tale of the Taco event that took place in 2019. It was fully finished, being quite polished compared to the rest of the modes, but was cut at the last second. The mode plays identically to Team Vanquish, but around the map there are hidden salsa pickups that give players buffs like low gravity. It would've taken place during Week 2 of the event.

Free Roam#

While this is not explicitly unused, as the Trials of Gnomus mode is built off of it, Free Roam goes unused on regular maps. Only two maps have support, those being Colizeum and Aqua Center. While Aqua Center is the standard map completely empty of any enemies, Colizeum's setup of the mode is far more interesting. On Colizeum, the developers appear to have been testing the map for Boss Hunt, with internal map layers referring to it as "bosshunt_servertest". In this setup, the Yeti King and various ice variants of zombies spawn, alongside some turrets and allied plants. All AI will respawn when they are killed. Oddly, the allied plants are immortal, and cannot be killed in any way.

"Siege Mode"#

A pair of buffs, vfx and an unused weapon refer to something known as "SiegeMode". Its not exactly clear as to what this Siege mode would have been, though given its vfx are located under gnome bombs directory, it might have been either related to it, or possibly its own separate mode.

Unused Map Features#

This section covers any unused features or oddities relating to maps in the game, such as mode support or unused alterations of maps. While these things exist in the files, they were never used in the final game.

Boss Hunt on Launch Maps#

All of the maps shipped with the game at launch have support for the Boss Hunt mode. Out of them, only Sandy Sands, Frosty Creek, and Time Park use the support. Certain maps in this list include early setup for the Sasquatch Boss Hunt. These include: Zen Peak, Lunar Landing and Z-Tech Factory. The early set up for Sasquatch was built around his unused appearance in Story Mode, so it is no longer functional with the final version of the game. The various support for the mode would've likely been used had the unused Story Mode Boss Hunts made it to the final game. For whatever reason, the respawn functionality for the Boney Island and Colizeum maps is broken.

Lunar Landing Soil Survivors#

Lunar Landing has support for the Soil Survivors game mode, but the map was never aired in rotation when the mode was used in Mystery Portals. This is due to an error that the developers did not fix where a certain spawn point has players spawn outside of the ring.

E3 Leftovers on Z-Tech Factory#

While non-functional and being stripped of all logic, leftovers still remain of the E3 demo of Graveyard Ops from 2015. In other files found in the map, the only remaining leftovers of the E3 demo with logic intact are related to the spawning animation of the Giga-Torchwood seen in the stage demo. As well as some unused sound patch configurations that were likely used during said presentation.

Wall-nut Hills Night#

As Wall-nut Hills is mostly a carbon copy import of the map from Garden Warfare, it has everything that was present in that game ported over. This includes the Wall-nut Hills Night variant. The visual environments are very broken normally, and have broken depth of field effects, looking very blurry. With patches to fix these errors, it appears to be a copy of the original lighting, just broken due to changes in how the lighting engine is handled. In addition, the lightmap for Objective 1 is broken normally, so various objects are not lit correctly.

Unused Private Play Support#

Two maps, specifically Wall-nut Hills and the multiplayer version of the Backyard Battleground, have unused support for spawning Private Play AI in their supported modes. This support goes unused, however, as the two maps cannot be selected in Private Play without mods. In addition, other maps that received support for Capture the Taco and Soil Survivors have support for spawning AI in those modes too. Due to Capture the Taco and Soil Survivors not being selectable game modes, it goes unused.

Unused Multiplayer Playlists#

In the Tale of the Taco update, various images were added to the files intended for multiplayer playlists. These include playlist images for Capture the Taco, Soil Survivors, a playlist consisting of all four Mystery Portal Boss Hunts, and a Mystery Portal Super Mix Mode playlist. Additionally, on the servers, IDs for 3 playlists exist that are not normally accessible: PL_08, PL_09, and PL_10. Attempting to force the game to connect to these playlists will result in a soft-lock, as they have no data set on the servers and thus default to loading the splash screen map, which can only be loaded when booting the game. It is likely that playlists for these modes were planned to be added as the developers knew support and live services would wrap up soon after the update, but they never implemented them for unknown reasons.

Unused Crazy Settings#

So Small & Cute Mode#

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There is a unused crazy setting named "So Small & Cute Mode"; when activated, it makes the character 50% smaller. It was likely scrapped due to being unfinished; character collision is not affected by the character's scale, and some animations completely ignore the character's scale.

Ink Painting#

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There is a unused crazy setting referred to as “ink painting”; when activated, it makes everything black and white with thick grey outlines, and also makes particle vfx invisible whilst active. Not exactly a friendly setting to those with sensitive eyes.

"KillerEffects"#

In the directory where all the buffs are located, along with all the other crazy settings, is one under the name "CrazyOptions_KillerEffects", which likely was abandoned early on given all it does, is set the users jump height to 1% of their value... not exactly a crazy setting now is it.

Gravitate#

This crazy setting would've applied a buff that basically granted everyone their own gravitational pull. Only the pull force is configured, nothing about how big the aura's would've been is defined anywhere else.

HighJump#

This crazy setting applies a simple buff that doubles the jump height of everyone when enabled. Likely scrapped due to it not being interesting.

Tale of the Taco#

The Tale of the Taco event, which was leading up to the reveal of Battle for Neighborville, has many scrapped features. Originally, in the player's backyard, they could interact with a telescope in which they could've interacted with a character named Talk-o, which is a giant taco on top of the Town Hall. The taco was able to speak, and would refer to itself as the "taco of your dreams." After the dialogue with the taco, the player would see a screen that would have shown rewards. It is presumed that these rewards would have been for Battle for Neighborville, as the name for that game was also found within the UI setups for the reward screen. In the weeks before the event, the unused features were easier to access, still being enabled on the server end. As the event grew closer, the ability to interact with Talk-o and see the loyalty rewards screen would be disabled.

Tale of the Taco would've originally had 8 weeks, likely starting earlier than it did. Week 2 was originally going to feature the unused Propulsive Salsa game mode, but due to the actual event only having 7 weeks, the mode went unused. While it has never explicitly been known why the event was cut short, it was very likely to due with Battle for Neighborville's Founder's Edition being a surprise release.

Unused NPC's#

Branching Zomboss/Final Mission#

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By clipping out of bounds with All-Star in earlier versions of the game and heading above the sewers, the player can talk to an unused NPC known as 'Branching Zomboss.' Attempting to interact with Branching Zomboss would give the dialogue "I got no Quests!" After responding with the only available option, being "What?", the dialogue "Come Back Later..." would be given, with both the response options of "YES" and "NO" ending the dialogue. In an unknown update, the NPC was moved further away, and rebranded to 'Final Mission', it can still be interacted with by bringing a Super Brainz on top of the sewers, and using his high jump to interact with him. Additional dialogue can also be found when checking the NPC's Spatial Prefab file, though that never gets used.

BossHunt Missions#

Nearby the Branching Zomboss NPC, is another one that goes by the name 'BossHunt Missions', likely hinting at some point, the 4 boss hunts that were in the town hall, were planned to be a part of a separate playlist that you could access at any time, which given unused graphics for a BossHunt Gamemode existing in a terminal, suggests this NPC could've used it. Can only be reached by using Super Brainz's high jump. Attempting to interact with the NPC will cause the camera to snap to a wide view, and the player to be soft locked, forcing them to restart the game.

"HUB_SideQuestGiver_Plants_Generic"#

This NPC can be located underneath the credits pedestal in the plants base. Its yellow exclamation point is active at all times. No actual name is assigned to them and attempting to interacting with them does nothing. Given its internal name, likely would've had a similar function to the quest board that both sides have access to today. Whilst normally only seen with map editors, it can be seen by bringing a pirate above the sewer area and using his parrot drone to fly to the plant base.

Trials of Gnomus NPC#

This "NPC" can be found at the world origin within the trials of Gnomus stage area. Given its far beyond the intended play area and below a death barrier, mods would be needed in order to even greet them. When in its interact range, it requests 5 stars for... something. Nothing happens if you complete the interaction so its likely had that functionality removed. Probably borrowed from the fish NPC you encounter in the sewers given its similarities in requesting stars.

Off-Screen Wizard Hat#

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Via the use of a now patched glitch, one can use the Garlic Drone to fly themselves into the changing booth area. From here, they can find a wizard hat on top of a table, which cannot be seen by any other means due to it being directly behind the camera. The top of the closet seen near the left also has a sort of top hat, which goes higher than normally viewable.

Infinity time#

Giga Gnome Wave#

Whilst no wave data exists, there is a string that displays "GIGA GNOMES COMETH", suggesting that at some point in infinity times development, the giga gnomes were going to have a special wave dedicated to them.

Last stand & Low intensity#

Within the directory for where all of infinity time's music is stored, are 2 audio files, labelled "EndLessOps_Intensity_Low" and "EndLessOps_LastStand". Both of these assets however are blank and have no audio in them at all. Given their located with the rest of infinity time's instrumental tracks, it is likely these were supposed to also be tunes that would play during the mode. The Intensity Low file might have played when few or no enemies were present, whilst the last stand one isn't exactly clear in where it would play, though speculation suggests it would've played when having the spectate the last teammate of a group.

Oddities#

Out of Bounds Objects#

In the Great White North stage towards the end of the map, two out-of-bounds gravestones can be seen off the map sitting a fair distance below where the terrain ends.

Also behind the final point, Dr Zomboss's chair can be seen chilling in the void for some reason.

In the Aqua Centre stage, far behind the "Naza" space ship obstructed by one of the various placed zombified buildings, is a regular floating house that can't normally seen without the use of a free cam. Likely a leftover from its unzombified days that the developers forgot about (Probably due to how rushed the game was).

Upgradable Turrets#

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In the Wall-Nut Hills stage, near each base, the Defender Bot that Engineers can build are actually leftover Zombot Turrets from Garden Warfare 1! However, when it's upgraded to tier 2, becomes a broken and glitch-prone tier 3 bot. This is due to its original model for its 2nd stage being replaced by tier 3's model for some reason, which when rigged with tier 2's animations, causes it to break. Luckily, when properly upgraded to tier 3, it fixes itself perfectly fine.

Captain PartyMan#

If one was to closely observe the Captain Partyman variants icon when in the character booth, one may notice that he is instead holding regular deadbeard weapon as opposed to his own.

Internal Oddities#

Grave Digger Textures#

In the texture sheet of the Gravedigger (who, fun fact, is an unused class turned unused boss from Garden Warfare 1) found in one of the test tubes in the Z-Tech Factories map, textures for an unknown SWAT Zombie can be seen in the bottom corner of the texture sheet, as well as a different zombie color in the top right corner. Given how in the files of Garden Warfare 1, references to a scrapped SWAT Zombie class can be found across the files, this may suggest the textures for the Gravedigger cameo were directly taken from the scrapped textures back when he was going to appear in the first game! And perhaps the swat zombie was also going to have a cameo in one of the test tubes.

Giga Torchwood Boss Wave rolls#

In the wave tree for graveyard ops. Wave 5 is supposed to have a single boss roll for each of the games 4 (5 if Beetboxer made it) plant ops bosses. However due to an oversight. The waves "Wave05-TorchwoodHorde" and "Wave05-SunqueenHorde" instead are assigned to spawn in giga torchwood as opposed to Big Stump and Sunflower Queen. This when paired with how the developers set up the game to select from the wave tree, results in one singular Giga Torchwood having an 80 to 90 percent chance in showing up for graveyard ops wave 5. Super bean waves thankfully spawns in a super bean as intended.

Rock Pea "Knockback"#

In Rock Pea's projectile blueprint, his pea's apply a debuff to enemies that goes by the name 'RockPeaKnockback'. Despite the name though, it only grants enemies hit by rock pea's projectile a 50% speed decrease... for 0.1 seconds. Whilst admittedly pointless, this is likely a leftover from the developers experimenting in granting him his debuff, given that in the patch notes for the first trouble in zombopolis update, it mentions the removal of his knockback.

Scallywag Imp "splash"#

Examining Scallywag Imps projectile blueprint reveals an interesting piece of data from it. That being that it has an explosion attached... that deals 1 damage, in an extremely tiny radius. Likely a mistake that was supposed to be corrected given a weapon like his was never meant to have splash to begin with, it was likely supposed to have the explosion purely for VFX but the damage was forgotten to be removed.

OverBean damage bug#

If one was to take a look at the weapon blueprint for Super Beans OverBean ability. One would notice it has a configuration in the shot directory where it deals increasing damage the less ammo the weapon had, but gave him an infinite ammo pool as opposed to a finite one to properly fit the configuration. This comedically results in Super Beans most powerful form... dealing less than 0.3 damage per shot, and basically not being a threat at all.

ChompCannonAddAmmo#

This buff as hinted at within its name, is supposed to be related to chomp cannon in some capacity, although strangely the buff was repurposed into refilling charges for spikeweed instead. Why this was changed is not exactly clear.

Unseen Easter Eggs#

• BT_Tactic_JumpAround - Hidden in this behaviour file is a debug string that reads "Kriss Kross'll make ya...", which is a reference to the song "Jump" by the same artist. Fitting for a behavior associated with jumping!