Explosive Escape is an ability for the Z-Mech in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 and Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. When used, the Imp inside the Z-Mech will eject from Z-Mech. Meanwhile, the Z-Mech will explode and deal 150 damage to any nearby plants. This is a single-use ability as it destroys the Z-Mech. It is an ability shared by all Z-Mech variants. Unlike most other abilities, the Explosive Escape must be activated twice to take effect.
Explosive Escape cutscene
Stickerbook description
Don't go down in flames. Imp can launch his way to safety as the Z-Mech's core explodes, taking out any plants caught in the radius.
Strategies
With
One way to use this ability is to fight a group of plants until you are on low health, and then use this ability. By doing this, you will distract and possibly harm your enemies, and possibly regain some health. And even if you do die fighting the plants, you will at least be revivable, whereas if you die in your Mech, you are not. Once (or if) the plants are running away, make sure to take the opportunity to attack them. They have to focus on getting away from the Mech, and will probably be distracted. This ability is very effective against AI, as they don't know to run away from the exploding Mech. Quickly deploying the Gravity Grenade next to the Mech before it completes its self-destruct sequence can leave those caught in the gravity well powerless to avoid the Mech's explosion, though the window of opportunity may be tight depending on the current enemy presence.
Against
This ability can do massive area damage, so if you are a plant, you should try to get away from the Mech as fast as possible. Since the Mech doesn't explode immediately, you do have some time to get away, just beware the imp that will come flying out of the Mech, as the explosion won't harm him and he will probably attack the retreating plants.
▲ Decreased delay to eject from Mech from 1 second to 0.2 seconds.
Gallery
Imp using Explosive Escape
Imp using Explosive Escape in E3 gameplay
Explosive Escape's default icon
Explosive Escape's icon (after pushing the triangle/number 2 button for the first time)
Explosive Escape's icon (confirmation of using the ability)
Explosive Escape's icon (collapsed)
Explosive Escape's ‘scrapped’ icon
In other languages
Please note that only official translations are used.
Language
Name
Description
English
Explosive Escape
Simplified Chinese
爆破逃脱
Traditional Chinese
爆破脫逃 爆破逃脫 in BfN
French
Repli explosif
German
Explosive Flucht
Italian
Fuga esplosiva
Polish
Wybuchowa ucieczka
Brazilian Portuguese
Fuga Explosiva
Spanish
Huida explosiva
Trivia
After pressing the button for the first time, the button will eventually close again if the 2/Y/Triangle button is not pressed for a short while.
The fact that two attempts are needed to activate this ability is a reference to how emergency switches often have a barricade that must be destroyed in order to trigger the switch, which is useful for preventing accidental triggering events. Accidental ejections would indeed be a genuine problem here since the Z-Mech takes a while to recharge.
Explosive Escape was going to actually have an icon in very early development. It was replaced in classic with the black and yellow stripes with the button underneath.
It’s not really scrapped or unused, just that you need to do a glitch where you eject the mech and jump at the same time.
It was shown on the official site before the game was released.
The Party Mech's Explosive Escape is actually replaced by the "Explosive Party." This is similar to the Party Citron Ball.