Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville has been quietly chugging along since its launch last year, featuring fresh new themes and rewards that switch out at the beginning of every month. Up until now, a good majority of those rewards have been cosmetic in nature, but this month’s prize board will bring a change in how you play with Legendary Upgrades for characters, and next month will change up who you play with the new Wizard Zombie.
Legendary Upgrades are a combination comsetic reward along with a themed character upgrade that makes subtle changes to how the character plays. While the cosmetic and upgrade are unlocked together, they can be used independently of each other. February’s prize board features the opportunity to earn the Shogun-Guard Legendary Upgrade for Kernel Corn. Shogun-Guard slows his rate of fire while increasing damage output. It also creates a small shield when you aim down sites. The cosmetic portion is a samurai warrior outfit called “Foodal Lord Draconius.”
Shogun-Guard is available to earn now on this month’s prize board. Starting March 3, it will be moved to Rux’s Emporium, available to purchase for Rainbow Stars. March 3 will also bring another major change. The Luck o’ the Zombie’s Prize Map will reward a brand new character, the Wizard Zombie, the first addition to Battle for Neighborville since its launch. After March, Wizard Zombie will be able to be purchased for 500 coins. PopCap and EA teased the Wizard Zombie in the new Valenbrainz Festival trailer, even though the character won’t arrive until next month.
The addition of the Wizard Zombie imbalances the count on each side, so it’s expected that “April showers will bring May flowers,” if you will. In other words, April will probably feature a new Plants character on the Prize Board, released for purchase using coins in May.
While that’s what’s on the table for the future of Battle for Neighborville, a brand new event and prize board just went live this month along with a host of adjustments and fixes to the game. Check out the full patch notes for the February update:
Patch Notes
General:
- New Turf Takeover Map: Preserve Pastures
- Explore Neighborville’s quaint new farmland map and what secrets the plants are hiding.
- New UI Element: Health Regeneration Bar
- A new bar that goes above a player’s health bar will now display how much time will pass beforel health regeneration begins.
- New Legendary Upgrade
- Shogun-Guard
- Kernel Corn will have a slower rate of fire, but will deal more damage and when you Aim Down Sight (zoom in) he will activate a small shield in front of himself.
- Shogun-Guard
Balance Changes
Character Hitbox adjustments
Tuned (Increased) the hitbox sizes for Nightcap, Acorn, Rose, Imp, and Electric Slide.
Velocity and Drag Distance – Certain characters were overperforming at distances beyond their intended range. So, we’ve made changes to the velocity and drag distance of several characters’ primary weapons that will make it harder to hit targets beyond this expected range (but not impossible).
Peashooter
- Homing Pea Upgrade has a shorter range on target acquisition
Chomper
- Increased effective area of primary Chomp
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Slobber shot
Kernal Corn
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Cob Busters
Nightcap
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Spore Strike
Oak/Acorn
- Decreased velocity of Shell Shot
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Wood Grief
- Fixed flight path and increased initial velocity of Sap Trap
Rose
- Decreased rate of fire on Magic Thistles
- Time Snare Upgrade: Increased the number of hits needed to trigger Time Snare
Foot Soldier
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Z-1 Assault Blaster
- Rapid Fire Upgrade – Decreased fire rate speed up and max fire rate
Imp
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Imp Blasters
- Increased recoil of Imp Blasters
Super Brainz
- Increased health gain per punch landed and effective area of Heroic Fists
All-Star
- Decreased velocity and drag distance of Football Cannon
- Increased recoil of Football Cannon
- Sprint Tackle refresh doesn’t start until ability is done
- Dummy Shield has a decreased cooldown time, and a shorter active time
Engineer
- Fixed collision check when attempting to deploy Double Time (easier to deploy)
If you want to unlock the Shogun-Guard early without paying Rainbow Stars, make sure you play during the Valenbrainz Festival in February and earn your way to the end of the prize board.
[Source: EA]
