Research Institute

歪比巴卜！

This article is about content created for the People's Republic of China.

He prefers to call himself Optimus Prime.

This page does not have an official English name. However, all pages will use Research Institute to refer to it.

Research Institute (研究所; pinyin: Yánjiū Suǒ; lit. translation: Research Institute) is the third world in the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 3 introduced in the second beta test of the game as part of the World Adventure game mode. This world offers a total of 15 levels to play, 4 plants to acquire, 3 evolutions to discover, and 13 zombies to fight against.

This world has three mechanisms, Electromagnetic Emitters^[?] (Simplified Chinese: 电磁发射装置; Traditional Chinese: 電磁發射裝置; pinyin: Diàncí Fāshè Zhuāngzhì), Mechanical Gravestones^[?] (Simplified Chinese: 机械墓碑; Traditional Chinese: 機械墓碑; pinyin: Jīxiè Mùbēi), and Drones^[?] (Simplified Chinese: 无人机; Traditional Chinese: 無人機; pinyin: Wúrén Jī):

• Electromagnetic Emitters: Some columns of the lawn will have a device above the topmost lane that emit an electromagnetic zap every once in a while, which deals a small amount of damage and paralyzes for a short period of time any plants within the device's column. If an electric attribute plants gets zapped by the device, nothing will happen to it, making electric attribute plants a counter to this mechanism. (Exclusive from the third beta test and onwards)
• Mechanical Gravestones: Occassionally an amount of mechanical gravestones will be dropped on the lawn on random tiles, which said gravestones have a timer set on them, and a specific zombie will be spawned upon the time out of the specific gravestone, after which the timer will reset and repeat this until the gravestone itself is destroyed. They come in three variations: 1. Spawns an Institute Zombie every 20 seconds, has low health; 2. Spawns an Institute Conehead every 40 seconds, has medium health; 3. Spawns a Secret Services Zombie every 60 seconds, has high health. These gravestones also act like zombies, meaning that lobber plants will not ignore them to prioritize other zombies in the lane, and they can have effects applied to them such as Convallaria Pharmacist's poison or Frankenstien Imp's enlargement. They can additionally be stunned for a very few seconds by certain electric attacks.
• Drones: Some columns of the lawn will have a landing pad with a purple drone on top of the pad above the topmost lane that will fly over its column to do a check-up on whether the column contains any plants or not. Upon detecting the first plant on its way, it will alert a Secret Services Zombie that will drop down from above onto the tile of the detected plant, after which the drone will go back to its landing pad without going further down the column, nor alerting any other Secret Services Zombies back on the way to its landing pad. The drone will enter a cooldown before doing another check-up on its column. Some levels may have green drones instead of (or alongside to) the purple drones, that act as horizontal version of the purple drones, i.e. having their landing pads hosted leftwards next to the leftmost column of the lawn, and doing check-ups down the entire lane. In case there is no plants in the column (or lane), the drone will simply go back to its landing pad without alerting any Secret Services Zombies to come down, unless a plant was planted on its way back to the landing pad before it reaches the landing pad.

In addition to these three mechanisms, the Gumbot mechanism from Wild Campground also appears throughout this world. Prior to the third beta test of the game, some levels would be set at a night-time setting, which would stop the falling of sun from the sky for the entire level.

Levels

Fourth BetaThird BetaSecond Beta

Level	Plants	Zombies	Flags	Notes		Prizes
				Mechanisms	Level Type	First Time	Star
1	Choice with Pre-planted:		One	Electromagnetic Emitters	Regular	15	() 60 () 5 () 5
2	Choice with Pre-planted:		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	15
3	Choice with Pre-planted:		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	15
4	Choice		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	15
5	Choice with Pre-planted:		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	15
6	Choice Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Three	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	15
7	Choice	Summoned:	Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	15
8	Choice with Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	15
9	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	15
10	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Last Stand	15
11	Choice with Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Three	Electromagnetic Emitters	Regular	15
12	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Gumbot	Regular	15
13	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Gumbot	Regular	15
14	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Gumbot	Regular	15
15	Choice with Pre-planted:		Immorticia's health	Electromagnetic Emitters, Wallow	Last Stand	15 + 1

(!) Replaying a level does not necessarily reward anything, unless a star objective was not complete on the first try.

Normal ModeHard Mode

Level	Plants	Zombies	Flags	Notes		First Time Prizes
				Mechanisms	Level Type
1	Choice with Pre-planted:		One	Electromagnetic Emitters	Regular	50 + 50
2	Choice with Pre-planted:		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50
3	Choice with Pre-planted:		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50
4	Choice		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	5 + 50
5	Choice with Pre-planted:		Two	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50 + 50 + 1 Zen Garden Gene Enhancement
6	Choice Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Three	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	5 + 50 Daily Challenge
7	Choice	Summoned:	Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	5 + 50
8	Choice Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	5 + 50
9	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	5 + 50 Hard Mode
10	Choice	Summoned:	Four	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Last Stand	100 + 5 + 50

Level	Plants	Zombies	Flags	Notes		First Time Prizes
				Mechanisms	Level Type
1	Choice		Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	50 + 3 + 50
2	Choice		Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	3 + 50
3	Choice		Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Mechanical Tombstones, Drones	Regular	3 + 50
4	Choice		Three	Electromagnetic Emitters, Drones	Unplayable	3 + 50
5	Contents of levels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of this world are unknown for the time being, due to level 4 of this world being physically impossible to clear, as the level provided no seed packets, even if the player had chosen their plants. It is unknown as to whether this was intentional, an oversight, a time constraint, or a possible bug/glitch for the time being.
6
7
8
9
10

(!) Replaying a level does not reward anything.

Level	Plants	Zombies	Flags	Notes		Prizes
				Mechanisms	Level Type	First Time	Replaying
1	Choice		Two	-	Regular	50 + 100	100
2	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50 + 100	100
3	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50 + 100	100
4	Choice		Three	Mechanical Tombstones	Survival Mode	1st Star: 50 + 200 + 100 2nd Star: 100 + 400 3rd Star: 100 + 600 400 / 500	100 400 / 500
4-1		Summoned:	Five Tombstones	Mechanical Tombstones	Grave Danger	100 + 100	100
4-2		Summoned:	Eight Tombstones	Mechanical Tombstones	Grave Danger	100 + 100 [i] 200	100
5	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50 + 100	100
6	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50 + 100	100
7	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	50 + 100	100
Gene Collection	Choice		Three	Mechanical Tombstones	Regular	40 + 40 + 40 + 40 10 + 10 + 10 + 10	[i] 10 + 10 + 10 + 10
8	Choice		Three	Mechanical Tombstones	Survival Mode	1st Star: 50 + 200 + 100 2nd Star: 100 + 400 3rd Star: 100 + 600 400 / 500	100 400 / 500
8-1		Summoned:	One	Drones	Duelo	100 + 100	100
8-2		Summoned:	One	Drones	Duelo	100 + 100 [i] 200	100
9	Choice	Summoned:	Two	Drones, Night	Regular	50 + 100	100
10	Choice	Summoned:	Two	Drones, Night	Regular	50 + 100	100
11	Choice	Summoned:	Two	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones, Night	Regular	50 + 100	100
12	Choice		Three	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones, Night	Survival Mode	1st Star: 50 + 200 + 100 2nd Star: 100 + 400 3rd Star: 100 + 600 400 / 500	100 400 / 500
12-1	Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Eleven Tombstones	Mechanical Tombstones	Grave Danger	100 + 100	100
12-2	Pre-planted:	Summoned:	Thirteen Tombstones	Mechanical Tombstones	Grave Danger	100 + 100 [i] 200	100
13	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones, Night	Regular	50 + 100	100
14	Choice		Two	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones, Night	Regular	50 + 100	100
15	Choice		One	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones, Night	Regular	50 + 100	100
15-1		Summoned:	One	Drones	Duelo	100 + 100	100
15-2		Summoned:	One	Drones	Duelo	100 + 100 [i] 200	100
16	Choice		Three	Mechanical Tombstones, Drones, Night	Survival Mode	1st Star: 50 + 200 + 100 2nd Star: 100 + 400 3rd Star: 100 + 600 400 / 500	100 400 / 500

Note: Majority of non-branch levels can optionally pre-select 7 or 8 random plants that can be unselected or no optionally pre-selected plants at all, with different type of pre-selection for each player. If a level has one or more locked pre-selections, the level can optionally pre-selected 7 or less random plants instead, with different type of pre-selection for each player again.

Update History

Third Beta

• Added new zombies: Firewall Zombie, Zombot Drone Engineer and Sharktronic Sand Sub.
• Changed the set of plants obtained from the levels: Puff-Shroom, Currant-Pult, Pine Needler, E.M.Peach and Fila-Mint.
• Added new evolutions associated to the world: Electric Ball Cactus, Electric Pine Needler, Electric Puff-Shroom, Electric Umbrella Leaf, Electric Currant and Infi-Nut.
• Added new mechanism: Electromagnetic Emitters.
• Re-balanced Mechanical Tombstones mechanism: 1. 20-seconds timed tombstones will now spawn Institute Zombies instead of Institute Coneheads, and the health of the tombstones has been lowered; 2. 40-seconds timed tombstones will now spawn Institute Coneheads instead of Experimenter Zombies, and the health of the tombstones has been lowered; 3. The health of the 60-seconds timed tombstones has been lowered.
• The number of levels in the world has been changed and a Hard Mode has been added, changing the number of levels from 16 levels to 20 levels (10 on Normal Mode and 10 on Hard Mode), which said new levels differ in level design from the second beta's levels, as well as removing the Grave Danger and the Duel level paths (levels 4-1, 4-2, 12-1, 12-2 and 8-1, 8-2, 15-1, 15-2 respectively).

1.3.5

• Added new zombies: Zom-Blob, Zom-Blot, Bride of Frankentuar and Immorticia.
• Changed the set of plants obtained from the levels: Puff-Shroom, Currant-Pult, Pine Needler and Fila-Mint.
• Added 5 more levels whilst also slightly modifying the past 10 levels, as well as adding star objectives to each one of the levels.
• Added a promotion of Aloe and Electric Aloe at the final boss level.
• Added star rewards.

1.4.2

• Modified the Zom-Blob tutorial on the 11th level to make it more convenient to the player.

Gallery

• 

  World map
• 

  Old World map
• 

  World map on Hard Mode (Third beta exclusive)
• 

  World lawn
• 

  Ditto, concept art
• 

  World icon
• Silhouette teaser of the world during the second beta test of the game

  Silhouette teaser of the world during the second beta test of the game