Portal (Plants vs. Zombies 2)
- For other uses, see portal.
In Plants vs. Zombies 2, portals are the main environment modifiers of Modern Day. They appear on any tile of the lawn and spawn special zombies from the respective world they are showing. The placement and the zombies spawned are fixed and never change. There is never any indication on whether they are going to appear on a level, nor the zombies they will spawn.
If a plant is planted on the tile on the left of where the portal appears, it will be bounced to a free tile on the lawn. An instant-use plant and tombstones can prevent a portal from appearing if placed where the portal is supposed to appear a little before they show up. However, this relies on timing.
On Highway to the Danger Room, Piñata Party, and Inzanity levels, they spawn different zombies from the ones of the normal levels. Those can be seen below.
Behavior
Portals are deployed at half of the player's lawn. On this note, the portal will stay and summon a zombie, based on its corresponding world. When a zombie arrives via portal, it appears in a same way as how Dr. Zomboss summons zombies using his first four Zombots. Furthermore, their appearance is limited and will close after a definite period of time.
In Highway to the Danger Room, the behavior is further observed. On levels 1-10, only a single portal from each world will be opened and will mostly summon one zombie, ocassionaly it may spawn three random zombies. On levels 11-20, two random portals will appear and two random zombies will be summoned. From this level onwards, portals will appear very frequently and will behave erratically and can have portals of same type appear. For example, there can be three Jurassic portals appearing and can deploy Jurassic Imp, Jurassic Bully, or Jurassic Fossilhead at once. At levels 31-40, three portals will appear and their durations are extended. As the player goes higher and higher, the number of portals appearing increases, the duration of portals opening also increases, as well as summoning up to three powerful zombies representing each world.
Portals in certain Piñata Parties may sometimes summon different zombies, depending on their current level appearance. The zombies summoned are programmed specifically by party.
Sounds
| Sound | Description |
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| A portal opening | |
| An open portal | |
| A portal closing | |
| Dr. Zomboss' portal |
Appearances
Far Future: Piñata Party
Lost City: Aloe, Salut! Epic Quest - Steps 4 and 8
Modern Day: Days 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 17, 19, 21, 35, 40, 41, Highway to the Danger Room and Rescue the Gold Bloom Epic Quest - Step 1
Spawned zombies
Normal
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Highway to the Danger Room/Inzanity Levels
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Memory Lane (China only)
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#1: 
Other combinations
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Blank Portal #1: Blank Portal #2: Blank Portal #3: |
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Other combinations (China only)
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Blank Portal: |
Strategies
Modern Day levels
Portals are with no doubt a very hard gimmick to deal with. They can easily spawn the most hard to defeat zombies into the heart of your defenses, like MC Zom-Bs and Surfer Zombies, so the best counter for them are Chard Guards and Hurrikales to instantly push them backwards.
On the other hand, it can be easy to prepare for the upcoming zombies, as the set that comes out never changes, but they do appear in a random order. Ready your Blover if a level has a Pirate Seas portal. Immediately place area effect plants once a Dark Ages portal appears. Use E.M.Peach for the Far Future portal. Another strategy is to place a Celery Stalker behind the portal, as it will attack zombies that spawn from the portal for heavy damage without the threat of retribution from them. Use stunning plants like Iceberg Lettuce to deal more damage.
Highway to the Danger Room
Portals here are worse than in Modern Day levels, as the portals can now summon more dangerous zombies like Chicken Wrangler Zombies, Boombox Zombies, and Wizard Zombies. Because one cannot retry a level, only one can guess if a portal type will appear in a level and bring certain plants to hope for the best that the portal will appear, else a seed slot is wasted. Later in the Endless Zone, more dangerous zombies will be spawned, and the portal density will greatly increase to the point that portals can be stacked on top of others. However, you need to atleast bring one plant that doesn't use solid objects because there is a high chance Jester Zombies may appear. You also will need to bring phat beets to counter Boombox Zombies.
Gallery
Ancient Egypt portal
An Ancient Egypt portal as seen in the lawn
Pirate Seas portal
A Pirate Seas portal as seen in the lawn
Wild West portal
A Wild West portal as seen in the lawn
Far Future portal
A Far Future portal as seen in the lawn
Dark Ages portal
A Dark Ages portal as seen in the lawn
Big Wave Beach portal
A Big Wave Beach portal as seen in the lawn
Frostbite Caves portal
A Frostbite Caves portal as seen in the lawn
Lost City portal
A Lost City portal as seen in the lawn
Neon Mixtape Tour portal
A Neon Mixtape Tour portal as seen in the lawn
Jurassic Marsh portal
A Jurassic Marsh portal as seen in the lawn
Memory Lane portal
Assets
Zombies being spawned by a portal
Five portals all spawning in the same column
A blank portal
portal GIF
Trivia
- In the Chinese version, zombies that are summoned from portals are not seen to have level upgrade icons. However, they are still upgraded.
- In the Chinese version, there are no portals for China-exclusive worlds in Modern Day. Unlike the international version, Wild West and Lost City portals appear in normal levels.
- Also, Jurassic Marsh portals do not appear in the Chinese version.
- In the development diary for Part 1, a Parasol Zombie is seen coming out of a Lost City Portal. However, this is only possible in Arena.
- Alongside this, Relic Hunter Zombie is seen coming out of a Lost City portal and a Disco Jetpack Zombie is seen coming out of a Far Future portal in the Modern Day Part 1 trailer, though this is also not possible in normal levels or in Highway to the Danger Room.
- Also, in the Modern Day Part 2 banner, a Lost Pilot Zombie is shown coming out of the portal, despite the fact they do not appear from them in the game as they can only appear from the Parachute Rain suprise attack.
- Although portals bounce plants to the immediate left of them, plants can still be replanted there.
- The plants are probably bounced back because of a gust of wind from the world behind the portal when it is made. After that, the wind disappears, and plants can be replanted there.
- If there is a tombstone where a portal will spawn, the portal will go to a different spot on the lawn.
- This also applies to if there are Bombegranate seeds near the portal.
- If a portal bounces an Infi-nut after the Infi-nut in question created a barrier with Plant Food, the barrier will not go down even after the Infi-nut is destroyed.
- Ancient Egypt and Far Future portals are the only ones which have two variations in Modern Day levels.
- The blank portal is the only portal to summon a veteran zombie.
- On any level not set in Modern Day, there is a different sound when portal opens, and close sound is missing.