Plants Vs. Zombies: Game of the Year, A 100% Achievement Guide

A basic guide covering on how to get all achievements, providing tips and possible exploits to help aid you to efficiently gain the achievements.

Welcome to the Guide!

Hello, thank you for referring to this guide! I've noticed there's not many PVZ achievement guides so I decided to make this. This guide has split all the achievements into sections for easy following. I will be giving tips and possible exploits to earn the achievement as efficiently as possible. Good luck and I hope this guide helps you!

Playthrough-Related

These are achievements that you'll earn just through playing the game

SPUDOW!

SPUDOW!
Blow up a zombie using a potato mine

Quite Easy
Pretty straightforward achievement, you'll earn this when you blow up your first zombie using the potato mine.

Explodonator

Explodonator
Blow up 10 zombies with a single cherry bomb

Cherry Bombing the zombies
When you get the Cherry bomb plant find a big group of zombies and let the angry cherry deal with them! Remember the cherry bomb covers 3 lanes in a 1 tile radius so make sure to use it somewhere near the middle for most effective use.

Disco is Undead

Disco is Undead
Hypnotize the lead dancer zombie

Dancing Beyond the Grave
To earn this achievement you need to use the Hypno shroom on the Lead dancer zombie.

Home Lawn Security

Home Lawn Security‎ ‎ ‎
Complete adventure mode‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

Finish the Game!
As the achievement says, get the game completed. The last level of the game is 5-10

Secrets

Ask Me About Mustache Mode

Ask Me About Mustache Mode‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
Enable Mustache Mode‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

This sure is a secret
Type 'mustache' anywhere whilst playing the game (can be done in the menu and mid level) to activate mustache mode, enjoy!

Cryptozombologist‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

Cryptozombologist
Discover the top secret zombie‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

You'll notice that once you complete the game that one zombie is missing in your almanac, well this zombie actually spawns on your second playthrough, you'll first encounter him on level 4-10.

Playthrough Challenges

These achievements involve you to play a certain way during a level. This section will cover the best ways to earn each achievement the least stressful way.

Sunny Days

Sunny Days
Get 8000 sun during a single level.

Best methods are either Day stages or Pool stages
Use the cheapest setup possible along with regular and twin sunflowers. If you want the best chances select the Imitater (Sunflower) so you can get to the target quicker. If your stage just has regular browncoat zombies, use just peashooters and only place them only if necessary. Only use necessary plants and try use the cheapest offensive plants possible.

Good Morning

Good Morning
Complete a daytime level by planting only Mushrooms and Coffee Beans.

Tips for this achievement
As the achievement states only mushrooms are allowed to be used and you MUST have a coffee bean otherwise the mushrooms will just fall asleep during the day stages! Your best bet is to use the cheaper mushroom plants such as the puff shroom since the coffee bean costs 75 sun.

No Fungus Among Us

No Fungus Among Us
Complete a nighttime level without planting any Mushrooms.

Tips for this achievement
It may seem difficult upon first glance but all it is is that the gameplay will feel very slow at the start. Highly recommend trying to get this trophy on level 2-1 as the zombies during the later night time stages are very strong.

Don't Pea in the Pool

Don't Pea in the Pool
Complete a daytime pool level without using pea shooters of any kind.

Easier than you think
Simply use all your catapult plants instead of the pea plants during the pool stages.

Grounded

Grounded
Defeat a normal roof level without using any catapult plants.

Tips for this achievement
If you're planning to use peashooters in the roof levels make sure you skip out on the first 3 lanes as the peashooters' peas won't travel the full length of the level (Since the roof dips at each end). I recommend aiming to get this achievement on 5-1 as it has the simplest zombies.

Popcorn Party

Popcorn Party
Defeat 2 Gargantuars with Corn Cob missiles in a single level.

Tips for this achievement
If I'm not mistaken this achievement can be earned through playing survival endless and selecting the cob cannon (Make sure you also have the corn catapult). Gargantuars start spawning around wave 14.
However, this isn't the only method, you can also do this during story. The easiest stage to try get this achievement on is level 5-8. Make sure you plant 2 rows of sunflowers, Twin sunflowers are not necessary but if you want the best chances definitely use them.

Money-Related

These achievements will achieve as soon as you've bought enough or all of a certain item (Or collected coins). There are 3 achievements in this field.

Penny Pincher

Penny Pincher
Pick up 30 coins in a row on a single level without letting any disappear.

You have a choice here
Most of the time other players earn this achievement in the walnut minigame on level 1-5 (Or you can play the walnut minigame at any time once you've played through the game once). When you bowl more than one zombie with a single walnut the zombies will drop coins.

However if the walnut minigame isn't for you then you can try earning it in survival endless (Or any other survival stage). Most of the time when you kill a zombie with an insta-kill plant (for example: Squash, Cob Cannon, Jalapeno, Potato Mine etc.) They will drop coins, since the level would be so long you will be able to get this achievement no problem.

Morticulturalist

Morticulturalist
Collect all 49 plants‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

All the plants in the game:
Once you complete the game there are a few plants you can buy from Crazy Dave's shop. I will list the following plants that he sells and their prices:

• Gatling Pea - $5,000
  
• Twin Sunflowers - $5,000
  
• Gloom Shroom - $7,500
  
• Cattail - $10,000
  
• Winter Melon - $10,000
  
• Gold Magnet - $3,000
  
• Spikerock - $7,500
  
• Cob Cannon - $20,000

TOTAL: $68,000

Towering Wisdom

Towering Wisdom
Grow the Tree of Wisdom to 100 feet

Unlocking and tips
Once you complete adventure mode you'll be able to purchase a destination where you can grow the Tree of Wisdom. Once you give $10,000 of your hard earned cash to Dave, you need to spend another $245,000 total to grow the Tree of Wisdom up to 100 feet with the use of tree food! That's gonna be one rich tree.

^ MONEY EXPLOIT FOR THESE ACHIEVEMENTS

You can get unlimited money by trying the method covered in the guide below. As of 2022 this still works, unless you're willing to grind the game for an extra 60 hours to earn these money achievements I recommend looking at the guide below (the guide isn't mine):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2821396029

Mini-Games and Puzzles

Roll Some Heads

Roll Some Heads
Bowl over 5 zombies with a single Wall-Nut.

Let the zombies pile up in the walnut minigame, once they almost reach Crazy Dave's house place a walnut and watch the carnage. You'll have better chances of earning this achievement if you have lots of zombies in the middle lane.

Beyond the Grave

Beyond the Grave‎‎ ‎
Beat all 20 mini games.‎‎ ‎

Beat all the minigames

Nobel Peas Prize

Nobel Peas Prize‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
Get the golden sunflower trophy‎ ‎

Complete all game content!
In order to get this achievement you have to complete adventure mode atleast once, complete all puzzles and minigames.

China Shop

China Shop
Get to a streak of 15 in Vasebreaker Endless‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

The strategy
Go one row at a time, if you get lots of plants from a row of vases plant those plants on other rows then move onto the row you planted the plants. Don't put all your plants in one lane you never know what zombies will be hiding in those vases.

Better Off Dead

Better Off Dead
Get to a streak of 10 in I, Zombie Endless‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

Most difficult achievement in the game
There is more depth in this puzzle than any other stage in Plants vs Zombies. There is no best way to get the achievement other than to get good at this puzzle or get lucky with the plant spawns, I will work on a separate guide to help optimise your zombie strategy to clear each wave. Even with exploits this achievement is difficult.

Immortal

Immortal
Get to 20 flags in Survival Endless

It's all in the plant composition
You can have fun with this achievement and try see what plant setup will work best for you to reach wave 20. Like the previous achievement above, I will create a separate guide on this as there's more than one method to getting this achievement.

Let me know how I did!

Thank you for referring to this guide! If you have spare time, drop some feedback by liking, favouriting and commenting on what you thought of the guide. Hope this has helped you massively in your achievement hunting, best of luck.

[Mr. Impossible]

Im pretty sure Imatator counts as a plant, at least it did for me and that one is 30,000 but its really not bad to get that

[[ERROR]]

Worked?

[Finnick]

@west bank settler, I will try with your method. looks like this time it will unlock

[melmagicmage]

@AGP 123 - Thank you much appreciated

[magazine permafrost]

also this guide is amazing, you earned some awards from me

[magazine permafrost]

finnick, try deleting the game save files on your pc after uninstalling, turning off steam cloud saves, and then reinstalling 100% brand new. you will have to start off 100% from scratch which is cancer, but that really should fix it.

[Finnick]

@melmagicmage thanks for the reply . I try verifying game files

[Felpo]

oh, I guess I missed that, nice guide!

[melmagicmage]

@Finnick - Yeah unfortunately some of the achievements can be glitched this is a pretty common issue. Since you've uninstalled and redownloaded the game I'm not sure what else you can do. You could try verifying your game files

[melmagicmage]

@Felpo - That is indeed what it says in this guide. 'in the second playthrough'