April 2017 Patch

The April 2017 Patch was a character balancing and bug fixing update for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 released on the 7th of April, 2017. The patch nerfed many characters which were considered overpowered, such as Electro Pea or Captain Cannon.

Bug fixes

• Sometimes Captain Squawk character stickers show up without his name, not anymore
• Fixed endless Toxic Overload issue for Toxic Brainz ensuring it always times out as designed
• Addressed performance issues around too many Party Imps appearing in the same session
• Prevent game from crashing due to two specific customizations (Druid-Robo’k hat & Derby Dillo)
• Ensured proper difficulty level for the Red Gnome in the “Brothers Gnomus” Boss Hunt

Balancing

Scallywag Imp

• Increased rate of fire from 150 to 200
• Increased ammo capacity from 10 to 12

Dev Notes: Scallywag has been slightly underperforming compared to his fellow Imps. An increase in rate of fire will help him hit targets more consistently. However, this will also cause his ammo to deplete more quickly, so we’ve increased his ammo capacity to help compensate. These changes will also bring up his damage per second and per clip, giving him that extra edge that a legendary character should have.

Breakfast Brainz

• Doubled the speed at which his rate of fire increases for both his ranged and melee attacks

Dev Notes: His slow ramp up in rate of fire made it difficult for him to secure vanquishes in a fight, often getting vanquished before reaching maximum damage output. We’ve increased the speed at which his rate of fire increases to help him put up more of a fighting chance when combat is initiated.

Electro Citron

Charged Shot First Level

• Decreased splash damage from 30 to 25 (also affects impact damage)
• Decreased inner splash radius from 3 to 2
• Decreased splash radius 4 to 3

Charged Shot Second Level

• Decreased splash damage from 45 to 40 (also affects impact damage)
• Decreased inner splash radius from 3.5 to 2.5
• Decreased splash radius from 5 to 4

Dev Notes: Electro Citron can charge his shots very quickly compared to other charge characters, allowing him to take cover while he quickly charges his next shot. However, his high splash damage combined with the spread of his electricity made him very difficult for Zombies to deal with. Decreasing the splash radius and damage of these charged shots will force players to be more accurate when using him. This change will also decrease his impact damage as splash is included, giving Zombies more of a chance to react should they get directly hit by a fully charged projectile.

Tennis Star

• Decreased movement speed while priming/firing by 25%

Dev Notes: His fast movement speed while priming or firing his weapon is what makes Tennis Star unique. However, it needs to be dialed down slightly as priming is one of the weaknesses of the Allstar class. He will still be the fastest Allstar both when moving and when priming/firing.

Kernel Corn

• Husk Hop: Decreased inner splash radius from 2.5 to 2.25

Dev Notes: Husk Hop can be very difficult to avoid due to its large splash damage radius. We want Zombies to feel like they can avoid getting vanquished by this ability if they see it coming without making Corn players feel like they’ve wasted their Husk Hop. This change causes damage to start to falloff near the outside of the splash damage radius. Zombies who manage to side step the attack will still receive damage, but it is less likely to vanquish them due to the decreased damage near the edge of the explosion.

Electro Pea

• Decreased detonation damage from 30 to 27
• Decreased detonation radius from 4 to 3.5
• Decreased regular splash damage from 18 to 16

Captain Cannon

• Decreased detonation damage from 35 to 32
• Decreased detonation inner damage radius from 4 to 3

Dev Notes: The most recent buffs to Electro Peashooter and Captain Cannon made them a little too powerful. These changes dial them back a bit and make it a little more difficult to secure those detonation vanquishes.