Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time

Also known as: Plants vs. Zombies 2
Developer: PopCap Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: iOS, Android
Released internationally: August 15, 2013 (iOS)
Released in AU: July 9, 2013 (iOS), October 2, 2013 (Android)
Released in CN: September 12, 2013 (Android)

This game has unused animations.
This game has unused areas.
This game has unused playable characters.
This game has hidden development-related text.
This game has unused enemies.
This game has unused graphics.
This game has unused music.
This game has unused text.
This game has regional differences.

This game is still under active development.
Be aware that any unused content you find may become used or removed in the future. Please only add things to the article that are unlikely to ever be used, or went unused for some time. If they do get used, please remove them from the page and specify in the edit summary!

To do:
Development directories in CDN TAR files.

A new Plants vs. Zombies game? It's about damn time.

This game notably found a release in China that has completely different mechanics, assets and content. For more details, click here.

To do:

There are two pages on the Plants vs. Zombies Wiki that have more unused content and more upcoming information than this page. Add them here. (Also, update this page to be in line with the latest release.)
Apparently, I have heard about concept art for plants that never made it into the final game (like the mammoth nut), can someone put it in a prototype/prerelease article?
Update history.

Sub-Pages

Plants
Unused/Early plants.

Zombies
Unused/Early zombies.

Worlds and Levels
Unused world assets and levels.

Powerups and Upgrades
Unused powerups and upgrades leftover in the game.

Development Leftovers

Developer Documentations

Removed Content
Stuff once in the game that's been removed since.

Unused UI Graphics

Early Popup Box

A sheet containing sprites for an early UI box.

This can be seen in concept art of a stage complete screen.

Early Buttons

2 early blue and green buttons found in the UIImages sheet.

Blue Button
Green Button

There is another set of early buttons found in the UnsortedImages sheet, this time being the same blue button but slightly bigger and cut into different sections for the left, middle, and right, and a red and white square button. Note that the middle unselected and selected sprites of the blue button are mistakenly swapped.

Blue Button Left
Blue Button Middle
Blue Button Right
Blue Button Left (Selected)
Blue Button Middle (Selected)
Blue Button Right (Selected)
Broken Blue Buttons
Red Button Left
Red Button Middle
Red Button Right
Red Button Left (Selected)
Red Button Middle (Selected)
Red Button Right (Selected)
Red Button

Early Seed Packet

Early sprites for the seed packet border. This seed packet design was used for the Power Tile seed packets in version 1.4.2.

Bottom
Top
Top selected
Cooldown
Locked
A green Power Tile seed packet, using the early packet design.

Early Shovel Button

An early version of the shovel button.

Default
Selected
Icon

This can be seen in concept art of the level UI, along with seed packets that somewhat resemble the previously mentioned early seed packet sprites.

Early Left and Right Arrows

2 unused sprites for left and right arrows. Their purpose is unknown.

Left
Right

Early Loading Animation

A very early version of the loading animation, with 4 black boxes coming in to cover the screen, and a white square growing during the loading.

Realistic Key

An unused sprite of a realistic key. This was likely a placeholder for gate keys. According to the folder this is in, hud_minimap, it was supposed to be for a scrapped mini map.

Endless Zone Button

An unused world map button that would've likely opened a menu for the Endless Zones.

Normal
Selected

Cheat Menu

Sprites for a cheat menu. It's impossible to enable this in the retail game.

Zen Garden

The Zen Garden originally worked slightly differently, with plants grown having unique boosts that weren't just getting Plant Food upon being planted.

Unused Boosts

There exist several boosts which were meant to be obtained via the Zen Garden, but ultimately the idea was canned and only First Strike was used.

Bounty Hunter

Would have increased the chance of a plant making a zombie drop coins when killed.

[BOOST_TITLE_BOUNTY_HUNTER]
Bounty Hunter

[BOOST_COMBAT_BOUNTY_HUNTER]
Defeated zombies drop coins

[BOOST_DETAIL_BOUNTY_HUNTER]
Zombies defeated by this plant drop coins. This boost lasts for 1 level.

Extra Toughness

Would have increased the health of the boosted plant.

[BOOST_TITLE_EXTRA_TOUGH]
Extra Toughness

[BOOST_COMBAT_EXTRA_TOUGH]
Extra protection against attacks

[BOOST_DETAIL_EXTRA_TOUGH]
Extra protection from zombies. This boost lasts for 1 level.

Fast Recharge

Would have decreased the recharge time of the boosted plant.

[BOOST_TITLE_FAST_RECHARGE]
Fast Recharge

[BOOST_COMBAT_FAST_RECHARGE]
Recharges faster

[BOOST_DETAIL_FAST_RECHARGE]
Recharges more quickly. This boost lasts for 1 level.

Rapid Fire

Would have increased the attack speed of the boosted plant.

[BOOST_TITLE_RAPID_FIRE]
Rapid Fire

[BOOST_DETAIL_RAPID_FIRE]
Attacks at a faster rate. This boost lasts for 1 level.

[BOOST_COMBAT_RAPID_FIRE]
Faster attack rate

Sun Discount

Would have decreased the sun cost of the boosted plant.

[BOOST_TITLE_SUN_DISCOUNT]
Sun Discount

[BOOST_COMBAT_SUN_DISCOUNT]
Reduced sun cost

[BOOST_DETAIL_SUN_DISCOUNT]
Costs less sun to plant. This boost lasts for 1 level.

Shovel Bomb

Would have made the boosted plant explode when shoveled up, dealing 270 damage in a 3x3 area.

[BOOST_TITLE_SHOVEL_BOMB]
Shovel Bomb

[BOOST_COMBAT_SHOVEL_BOMB]
Explodes when shoveled

[BOOST_DETAIL_SHOVEL_BOMB]
Explodes when shoveled. This boost lasts for 1 level.

Marigold Boost

Likely would have boosted the Marigold's chance of producing gems, which she originally had a small chance to do based on her old Almanac entry. This is backed up by the fact that the image ID linked to this boost is named IMAGE_ZEN_GARDEN_BOOSTS_GEM.

Early Boost System

1.9.2

Data for the plant boosting system was first added in version 1.9.2. At this point it was pretty incomplete, with only plants up to Cabbage-pult (and oddly Sun-shroom, who was unreleased at the time) having unique boosts and every other plant just having First Strike.

Plant	Boost
Sunflower	Sun Discount (-15)
Peashooter	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)
Wall-nut	Fast Recharge (-25%)
Potato Mine	First Strike
Bloomerang	Rapid Fire (x1.5)
Cabbage-pult	Extra Toughness (x2)
Iceberg Lettuce	First Strike
Grave Buster	First Strike
Twin Sunflower	First Strike
Bonk Choy	First Strike
Repeater	First Strike
Snow Pea	First Strike
Kernel-pult	First Strike
Snapdragon	First Strike
Power Lily	First Strike
Spikeweed	First Strike
Coconut Cannon	First Strike
Cherry Bomb	First Strike
Spring Bean	First Strike
Spikerock	First Strike
Threepeater	First Strike
Squash	First Strike
Split Pea	First Strike
Chili Bean	First Strike
Torchwood	First Strike
Lightning Reed	First Strike
Tall-nut	First Strike
Jalapeno	First Strike
Pea Pod	First Strike
Melon-pult	First Strike
Winter Melon	First Strike
Imitater	First Strike
*Marigold	Marigold Boost
*Laser Bean	First Strike
*Blover	First Strike
*Citron	First Strike
*E.M.Peach	First Strike
*Starfruit	First Strike
*Infi-nut	First Strike
*Magnifying Grass	First Strike
*Tile Turnip	First Strike
*Sun-shroom	Extra Toughness (x2)
*Puff-shroom	First Strike
^Scaredy-shroom	First Strike
^Pult-shroom	First Strike
^Roto-shroom	First Strike
^Dart-shroom	First Strike
^Zoom-shroom	First Strike
^Vacuum-shroom	First Strike

* = Unreleased at this time, but was added in a later version
^ = Plant is no longer in the codes as of the latest release

2.0.1

The boost system was updated in version 2.0.1, this time with each plant having 3 different boosts that would be randomly picked.

Plant	Boost 1	Boost 2	Boost 3
Sunflower	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Peashooter	Sun Discount (-15)	Shovel Bomb	Sun Discount (-50)
Wall-nut	Fast Recharge (-20%)	Shovel Bomb	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Potato Mine	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)	First Strike
Bloomerang	Sun Discount (-25)	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)	First Strike
Cabbage-pult	Sun Discount (-15)	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)	Rapid Fire (x1.5)
Iceberg Lettuce	Fast Recharge (-20%)	Shovel Bomb	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Grave Buster	Fast Recharge (-25%)	Extra Toughness (x1.5)	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Twin Sunflower	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Shovel Bomb	Sun Discount (-75)
Bonk Choy	Sun Discount (-25)	Extra Toughness (x1.5)	First Strike
Repeater	Sun Discount (-50)	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)	Rapid Fire (x1.5)
Snow Pea	Sun Discount (-25)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Kernel-pult	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Snapdragon	Sun Discount (-25)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Power Lily	Sun Discount (-25)	Shovel Bomb	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Spikeweed	Sun Discount (-15)	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)	First Strike
Coconut Cannon	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	Extra Toughness (x1.5)	Sun Discount (-100)
Cherry Bomb	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	Sun Discount (-50)	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Spring Bean	Fast Recharge (-50%)	First Strike	First Strike
Spikerock	Sun Discount (-50)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Threepeater	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Rapid Fire (x1.25)	Sun Discount (-100)
Squash	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	First Strike	First Strike
Split Pea	Sun Discount (-25)	Extra Toughness (x1.5)	Sun Discount (-50)
Chili Bean	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	Shovel Bomb	Fast Recharge
Torchwood	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Lightning Reed	Sun Discount (-25)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
Tall-nut	Sun Discount (-25)	Shovel Bomb	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Jalapeno	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	Sun Discount (-50)	Fast Recharge (-50%)
Pea Pod	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Sun Discount (-50)	Rapid Fire (x1.5)
Melon-pult	Bounty Hunter (10% coin drops)	Rapid Fire (x1.25)	Sun Discount (-100)
Winter Melon	Bounty Hunter (+10% coin drops)	Sun Discount (-100)	Rapid Fire (x1.5)
Imitater	N/A	N/A	N/A
*Marigold	N/A	N/A	N/A
*Laser Bean	Sun Discount (-50)	Shovel Bomb	Rapid Fire (x1.5)
*Blover	N/A	N/A	N/A
*Citron	Fast Recharge (-25%)	Shovel Bomb	Sun Discount (-100)
*E.M.Peach	N/A	N/A	N/A
*Starfruit	Sun Discount (-25)	Bounty Hunter (+100% coin drops)	First Strike
*Infi-nut	Sun Discount (-25)	Shovel Bomb	Fast Recharge (-50%)
*Magnifying Grass	Extra Toughness (x1.25)	Shovel Bomb	First Strike
*Tile Turnip	N/A	N/A	N/A
*Sun-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
*Puff-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
^Scaredy-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
^Pult-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
^Roto-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
^Dart-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
^Zoom-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A
^Vacuum-shroom	N/A	N/A	N/A

* = Unreleased at this time, but was added in a later version.
^ = Plant is no longer in the codes as of the latest release.
N/A = This plant does not have any boost data.

Unused Costumes

Many plants in PvZ2 have costumes that can be unlocked and equipped. However, there are a few costumes that go unused.

Sunflower

Sunflower's costumes have never been obtainable (aside from her seasonal costumes). These never had any proper data until 8.6.1 when they were suddenly given data, however they are still unobtainable. Sunflower also has a Valenbrainz costume that was never used, likely by mistake.

Window Blind Glasses
Round Glasses
Red Glasses (used in Chinese version)
Top Hat
Heart Glasses
Costume Sprites

Marigold

Marigold has 8 different unused costumes, 7 of them being different petal colors (like colored Zen Garden Marigolds in the original Plants vs. Zombies), and the 8th being a top hat. Due to Marigold not being plantable and being a Zen Garden exclusive plant, these costumes are unobtainable and unused.

Red Petals
Orange Petals
Yellow Petals
Green Petals
Blue Petals
Indigo Petals
Violet Petals
Top Hat
Costume Sprites

Unused Features

Tokens

It seems like premium plants and plant leveling weren't going to be the only form of monetization in PvZ2, as old versions contain data for an unused token system, where you would need 1 token in order to play a level similar to a lives system. These tokens were planned to be obtained in the Zen Garden, though how they would be obtained is unknown.

Early and Internal Names

Plants

Iceberg Lettuce is internally referenced as "iceburg".
Infi-nut is internally referred to as "holonut".
E.M.Peach is internally referred to as "empea".
Tile Turnip is internally referenced as "powerplant".
Banana Launcher is internally referred to as "banana".
Rotobaga is internally referenced as "xshot".
Red Stinger was internally called "columnpod" in earlier versions before it was changed into "redstinger".
Gold Leaf is internally referenced as "goldtileturnip", probably because both the Tile Turnip and Gold Leaf make tiles.
Perfume-shroom was referred to as "dinonip" in the prototype codes for Jurassic Marsh.
Sling Pea's object class refers to it as "ArmamintPeashooter".
Dazey Chain's sprite sheet refers to it as "reincarnation".
Bun Chi is internally referred to as "waterrabbit".
Marigold's object class refers to it as "PlantCoinDispenser"

Zombies

Several zombies have internal names that don't reflect their actual in-game names:
- Conehead Zombie, Buckethead Zombie, and all of their variants from other worlds share the same ending suffixes: _armor1 and _armor2 respectively.
  - Knight Zombie, Blockhead Zombie, Jurassic Fossilhead, and Centurion Zombie share the _armor3 suffix.
  - Brickhead Zombie, Pyramid-Head Zombie, Barrelhead Zombie, Cart-Head Zombie, Holo Head Zombie, Amberhead Zombie, and Bust Head Zombie share the _armor4 suffix.
- Barrel Roller Zombie as "barrelpusher" in earlier versions.
- Chicken Wrangler Zombie as "chicken_farmer".
- Shield Zombie as "future_protector".
- Bug Bot Imp as "gargantuar_imp".
- Jester Zombie as "dark_juggler"
- Parasol Zombie as "lostcity_jane", likely a reference to Jane Porter from Tarzan.
- Turquoise Skull Zombie as "lostcity_crystalskull"

Penny's Early Name

Penny is internally referenced as "Winnie".

PC Release Text

There is unused text suggesting that the game may have been planned to come to PC at some point.

[HARDWARE_ACCELERATION_NOT_SUPPORTED]
Hardware Acceleration cannot be enabled on this computer.
Your video card does not
meet the minimum requirements
for this game.

[INVALID_WINDOWS_MODE]
Windowed mode is only available if your desktop was running in either
16 bit or 32 bit color mode when you started the game.
If you'd like to run in Windowed mode then you need to quit the game and switch your desktop to 16 or 32 bit color mode.

[NO_WINDOWED_MODE]
No Windowed Mode

[OPTIONS_3D_ACCELERATION]
3D Acceleration

[OPTIONS_FULL_SCREEN]
Full Screen

[SLOW_PERFORMANCE]
Your video card may not fully support this feature.
If you experience slower performance, please disable Hardware Acceleration.

Naming Penny

There is unused text implying you were once able to name Penny.

[RV_NAME_INVALID]
I didn't quite get that...

[RV_NAME_SAME_AS_PLAYER]
That's your name, silly!

Unused XML Files

Framework Strings

Leftover Windows application startup/crash text strings.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Properties version="1.0" language="en" country="US" lookandfeel="NORMAL" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="">
<String id="LOCALE">English_United States</String>

<!-- Framework Strings -->
	<String id="DIALOG_BUTTON_YES">YES</String>
	<String id="DIALOG_BUTTON_NO">NO</String>
	<String id="DIALOG_BUTTON_OK">OK</String>
	<String id="DIALOG_BUTTON_CANCEL">CANCEL</String>

	<String id="UNEXPECTED_ERROR">An unexpected error has occured!  Pressing 'Send Report will send us helpful debugging information that may help us resolve this issue in the future.&cr;&cr;You can also contact us directly at feedback@popcap.com.</String>

	<String id="PLEASE_HELP">Please help us out by providing as much information as you can about this crash. Is this the first time it happened? Have you used other PopCap Deluxe games successfully before? Have you upgraded your drivers or any software recently that may be interfering with this program?</String>

	<String id="FAILED_CONNECT_POPCAP">Failed to connect to PopCap servers.  Please check your Internet connection.&cr;If you are on a dial-up connection, you may have to manually connect to your ISP.</String>

	<String id="HARDWARE_ACCEL_SWITCHED_ON">3D acceleration was switched on during this session.&cr;If this resulted in slower performance or other display problems,&cr;it should be switched off.&cr;&cr;Would you like to keep 3D acceleration switched on?</String>

	<String id="HARDWARE_ACCEL_CONFIRMATION">3D Acceleration Confirmation</String>

	<String id="HARDWARE_ACCEL_NOT_WORKING">3D acceleration may not have been working correctly during this session.&cr;If you noticed graphics problems, you may want to turn off 3D acceleration.&cr;Would you like to keep 3D acceleration switched on?</String>

	<String id="FATAL_ERROR">FATAL ERROR</String>

	<String id="PLEASE_SET_COLOR_DEPTH">Please set your desktop color depth to 16 bit.</String>

	<String id="FAILED_INIT_DIRECTDRAW">Failed to initialize DirectDraw: </String>

	<String id="UNABLE_OPEN_PROPERTIES">Unable to open properties file </String>

	<String id="PROPERTIES_SIG_FAILED">Signature check failed on </String>

	<String id="INVALID_COMMANDLINE_PARAM">Invalid command line parameter:</String> 

	<String id="APP_REQUIRES_DIRECTX">This application requires DirectX to run.  You can get DirectX at http://www.microsoft.com/directx</String>
	<String id="YOU_NEED_DIRECTX">You need DirectX</String>

</Properties>

Shop XML File

The shop XML file from the first game is here.

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Properties country="US" language="en" lookandfeel="NORMAL" version="1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="">
	<Double id="OPTION_DLG_LABEL_FONT_SCALE">1.0</Double>
	<Integer id="OPTION_DLG_SLIDER_LABELS_OFFSET_X">40</Integer>
	<Integer id="OPTION_DLG_CHECKBOX_LABELS_OFFSET_X">40</Integer>

	<Boolean id="STORE_USE_COMING_SOON_IMAGE_LABEL">false</Boolean>
	<Boolean id="STORE_USE_SOLD_OUT_IMAGE_LABEL">false</Boolean>
	<Boolean id="STORE_USE_EXTRA_SLOT_IMAGE_LABEL">false</Boolean>
</Properties>

Debugging Material

To do:
Code and text for Zombie Spawning Debug and a portion of other debugging functions are present in older versions of the game to v3.1.1. Despite the cheat menu isn't loaded, maybe the functions exist to enable them?

Various game files mention a cheat menu, preferably in the main game data, this video showcases one from the Chinese release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alrD7qNX8mg (ingame) and this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0geM5gF2Mo showcases one from PVZ's YouTube channel livestream (map). Unfortunately, the menu is stripped from nearly every public release.

Oddities

Early Barrel Roller Zombie Face

The Almanac icon for the Barrel Roller Zombie mistakenly uses an early version of its design with an early version of the zombie face design.

v · t · e The Plants vs. Zombies series
Windows, Mac OS X	Plants vs. Zombies (Prototypes)
Android	Plants vs. Zombies • Plants vs. Zombies 2 • Heroes • Plants vs. Zombies 3 (Demos)
iOS	Plants vs. Zombies • Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Use Your Brainz EDU) • Heroes • Plants vs. Zombies 3 (Demos)
Adobe Flash	Plants vs. Zombies
Nintendo DS, DSiWare	Plants vs. Zombies
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita	Plants vs. Zombies

China-Exclusive
iOS	Great Wall Edition • Plants vs. Zombies 2 • All Stars
Android	Great Wall Edition (Dev Build) • Journey to the West • Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Dev Build) • All Stars
Windows	Online
Android TV	Plants vs. Zombies

Garden Warfare
Windows	Garden Warfare • Garden Warfare 2 • Battle For Neighborville (Closed Alpha)
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3	Garden Warfare
Xbox One, PlayStation 4	Garden Warfare • Garden Warfare 2 • Battle For Neighborville (Closed Alpha)
Nintendo Switch	Battle For Neighborville (Closed Alpha)