Penny's Pursuit (Chinese version)
- For the international version of the game mode, see Penny's Pursuit.
Penny's Pursuit (潘妮的追击; pinyin: Pān nī de zhuījí) is a mode that was released in the 2.5.0 update in Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Chinese version). Unlike the international mode, this mode is completely different such as: having a leaderboard, having seasons, and having ZomBotany zombies.
Gameplay
In Penny's Pursuit, there are 3 difficulties to choose from for a level: Mild (easy), Spicy (medium), and Extra Hot (hard). To start a level, the player needs at least 5 Fuel, except for the boss level. If the player doesn't end up winning the level, the 5 Fuel will be saved and not wasted, however if the player does end up winning, the 5 Fuel will be consumed as normal. Once loaded into a level at any difficulty, the player can select Perks to use in the level. The player can choose one Perk for free, but additional Perks will cost gems to use in the level (with 5 gems cost for each perk). Playing a level requires 5 fuel at any difficulty.
Zombies, as well as lawns, from worlds exclusive to the Chinese version can also appear in levels, including worlds from Secret Realms, with the only lawn exception being Sky City due to its unique nature and environment.
Difficulty
Depending on the difficulty, the zombies' tiers and the objectives the player can complete may change. At mild (easy), zombies are set to tier 1; at spicy (medium), they are set to tier 3; and at extra hot (hard), they are set to tier 6. Also, harder difficulties can take away certain benefits and zombies have stronger health and faster eating rate than usual, the level of difficulty can also decrease the number of lawn mowers, the number of seed slots, how often sun drops from the sky, how much sun you start within a level, the amount of Plant Food you start within a level, the maximum amount of sun you can bank up, and preparation time before the first wave starts.
Once the player selects their level, difficulty, and Perks for the level, they're able to play levels that are in different styles:
- Normal/Classic levels, survive waves of zombie attacks.
- Arena style levels, farm the score as much as possible.
- Last Stand style levels, plan your defense to survive the attacks.
- Timed levels, survive with a timer ticking, until it's time over.
- Minigame levels, such as Bulb Bowling, Beghouled, Vasebreaker, etc.
- Final level, in which the player gets to pick 5 plants for the level, and 3 tool seedpackets: Tier Up packet, which tiers up the plants' tiers by 1 (can be stacked as much as your specific plants' original tiers in your account's progress); Plant Food packet, which grants you plant food; Artifact packet, which grants a usage for your artifact. The player begins with little amount of sun, and sun won't fall from the sky, instead each zombie defeated will return some amount of sun. All plants begin with tier 1 and can be tiered up if possible, with the Tier Up seedpacket.
There are also bonus objectives which the player can complete to upgrade their Perks. Once a level is completed, the player can receive rewards and ZPS Points, which is used to fuel a metre to fight Dr. Zomboss and one of his Zombots which changes every week.
ZPS Metre
Mild (easy) difficulty levels fill up your ZPS by 15%, spicy (medium) difficulty levels fill it up by 20%, and extra hot (hard) difficulty levels fill it up by 30%. Once your ZPS metre reaches 100%, you can fight Dr. Zomboss up to 3 times, each time a harder difficulty, for a chance to claim rewards. The player will be prompted to a screen to select whether he wants to double the outcome of this battle or not. Upon choosing to double it, the player will be doubling the amount of gems, pendant puzzles, and clocks currency he will receive in each of the 3 battling times, and the player will then have to wait 20 hours before being able to fill up the ZPS metre and fight Dr. Zomboss again; otherwise, the player will receive the regular portion of rewards (gems, pendants, clocks) but will have to wait 10 hours instead. Any excess ZPS carries on to the next day after you have fought Dr. Zomboss 3 times. ZPS will not increase if you try to gain more after reaching 100% (or higher).
Perks
Perks are upgraded in a different manner than in international version. If at least one of bonus objectives was complete, player will be presented with a choice to get a perk of a certain level. Perk level is dependent on the level player has beaten: completing level 1 will grant level 1 perks, level 2 will grant level 3 perks, and so on up until level 9 perks. Perks can be upgraded non-linear, and level 1 perk can be upgraded straight away to level 9. Player always starts with level 1 Boss Buster, Score Boost and Penny Shield perks. Unique to the Chinese version of this game mode are effects unique to the event. These can either make or break the level, as they can either give your plants an advantage or a disadvantage.
Weekly Effects
Each week one effect is applied to all levels, which either boosts zombies or weakens plants. Known effects are:
- All zombies can deflect physical projectiles, similar to Jester Zombie.
- All zombies explode after death in 1x1 range.
- All basic zombies and their armored variations become Buckethead Zombies.
- All zombies are sped up.
- Zombot gains health boost after losing each health bar.
- All plants start damaged.
- Plant Food can't be used on melee plants.
- Lobber plants range is reduced.
- Three plants from the current world are banned.
Leaderboard
Similar to Arena, Endless Challenge, and PvP Mode, there is a leaderboard. The higher the score the player has, the higher their rank will be. The higher their rank is, the more rewards will be given at the end of the week. The leagues are as follows: Wood, Stone, Bronze, Iron, Gold, Diamond, Ruby. After reaching the last league, Ruby, chests can be obtained by reaching high scores:
- Reaching 100,000 points: 100,000 coins and 100 gems.
- Reaching 120,000 points: 200,000 coins and 200 gems.
- Reaching 140,000 points: 500,000 coins and 400 gems.
Seasons and Shops
Every Season, there is a new shop with different content each time. The player can spend the clocks currency they get from beating levels or reaching leagues to get exchange for rewards, such as plant puzzles, pendant puzzles, auxiliary items, plant costume puzzles, and artifact vials and cubes. There is a specific plant featured every season, which will be the hardest one to obtain through the shop. There's also different types of seasons: Denary, which consist of 10 levels per week, that is, a total of 80 levels per season; Senary, which consists of 6 levels per week, that is, a total of 48 levels per season; Quinary, which consists of 5 levels per week, that is, a total of 40 levels per season.
| Season Number & Name | Season's Plant | New/Special Zombie(s) | Type of Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
          
|
Denary Season |
| 2 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
   
|
Denary Season |
| 3 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
|
Denary Season |
| 4 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 5 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
(Elite Variants) |
Senary Season |
| 6 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 7 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 8 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
|
Senary Season |
| 9 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 10 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 11 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 12 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 13 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 14 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Senary Season |
| 15 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 16 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 17 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 18 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 19 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 20 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
  (Special) |
Quinary Season |
| 21 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 22 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 23 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 24 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 25 - Rome Invades! 罗马入侵! |
|
N/A | Quinary Season |
| 26 - Steam Invasion! 蒸汽入侵! |
|
 (Special) |
Quinary Season |
Gallery
Penny's Pursuit icon
Penny's Pursuit icon (Steam Invasion)
Perk Library
Perk Library icon
Mild difficulty icon
Spicy difficulty icon
Extra hot difficulty icon
Leaderboard
Leaderboard icon
Difficulty selection UI sprites
Trivia
- For some odd reason, every season up to Season 25 is titled "Rome Invades!" despite some seasons not even featuring a single roman zombie in any of the levels.
- In-game, Season 26 too is titled "Rome Invades!", however it is officially referred to as "Steam Invasion!" outside the game. This was probably overlooked and not forgotten to be done in-game.