Eldritch horrors aplenty are coming to Blizzard’s free-to-play card game It’s been rumored over the past weeks, and now it’s official: Hearthstone’s next expansion is on the way, and it’s titled Whispers of the Old Gods.
The confirmation came during a special announcement kicking off Hearthstone’s Americas Winter Championship tournament. Blizzard unveiled a cinematic trailer for the expansion (featured above). The developer announced that it will contain 134 new cards themed around the old gods, a collection of evil eldritch beings of incredible power from Warcraft lore.
Whispers of the Old Gods will launch some time in late April or early May of 2016. An early patch to prepare for the expansion will debut this coming Monday, March 14, which will introduce the new deck recipes feature. We’ll be providing more details on the new expansion and some of the cards you can look forward to in it later today, so stay tuned.

After weeks of mounting rumors, Blizzard today revealed the next expansion for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. We were able to check out the news and test-run some cards from the expansion a little bit early. Let’s go over everything we know so far, along with some quotes from the developers at Blizzard.
Okay, so what is Whispers of the Old Gods?
Glad you asked! It’s a full expansion for Hearthstone — as opposed to the smaller and more single-player-focused adventure sets — that will contain 134 total new cards. As the first expansion of 2016, it will also mark the introduction of the new standard format.
Standard format? What is that?
It’s a long story, but basically, beginning with Whispers of the Old Gods, Hearthstone’s ranked mode will be split into two. What we currently know as ranked will become wild mode; in this mode, every card from Hearthstone’s history and future will be usable.
In the new standard mode, however, only cards from sets introduced in the current and previous calendar year will be allowed. For this year, that means that Curse of Naxxramas and Goblins vs. Gnomes cards will not be playable in standard format. Standard format will be used for official tournaments, and it seems to be the mode Blizzard is placing most of its weight behind in terms of design and balance.
You can read more about the format system here, or watch our video detailing it here.

Back to the expansion: Who or what are the old gods, and why are they whispering?
In Warcraft lore, the old gods are a group of, well, old gods — extremely powerful, extremely evil, immortal beings who tend to be covered in tentacles and eyeballs. If you’re familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, you have some idea of what to expect.
Hearthstone senior designer Mike Donais: The first thing I did when I figured out we were doing the old gods, I started with a Google search. I started reading stuff by Lovecraft, and I picked out up some written material.
To be precise, the Warcraft universe has four known old gods: C’Thun, Yogg-Saron, Y’Shaarj and N’Zoth. These eldritch horrors have the ability to corrupt any mortals they come into contact with, which is why they’ve been chained deep beneath the surface of Azeroth. Their only way to affect the world above is by slowly driving people insane via whispers — thus, Whispers of the Old Gods.
For reference, old god crazy-making is what led to Deathwing, the big bad of World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion. Would you believe he used to be a totally normal, chill giant dragon bro?
Hold on a second. If the old gods are chained underground and can only whisper, they’re not going to make great cards, are they?
Have no fear! Hearthstone pulls from the Warcraft lore, but it also gets a lot of freedom to do weird stuff. In this case, that means allowing players to use those four old gods as hard-hitting 10-mana-cost minions.
Hearthstone lead designer Ben Brode: I think it was years ago when we were brainstorming ideas for Goblins vs. Gnomes, old gods went up on our whiteboard. It immediately got us excited. Hearthstone takes a different look at Warcraft. It’s a very high-up look at things, so we can explore wider themes, I think. The old gods is such a wide theme. It immediately inspires so many cool takes on that stuff.
Plus it gives us an opportunity to explore new lore in a lot of ways. Some of the old gods have never been seen. We don’t even know what some of them look like. Hearthstone’s going to be the first game to explore what some of the old gods look like. That’s awesome to me.
We’ll come back to the old gods, though, especially C’Thun.

“Hearthstone’s going to be the first game to explore what some of the old gods look like. That’s awesome to me"

Enough buildup: What are the sweet new cards we’ll be getting?
Blizzard has only revealed a handful of new cards from the expansion so far, but we can go over them now. Thus far, they’re split into two distinct groups. The first is corrupted versions of cards we already know and love. Let’s take a look.
Hearthstone senior producer Yong Woo: The dark influences of the old gods are changing the minions in Azeroth in different ways. In some cases, they make them more grotesque and bigger and more powerful.
In other cases, the twisting words of the old gods make a bizarro, evil twin version of minions we’re familiar with. It’s kind of like Wario to Mario, I guess.

Polluted Hoarder
Woo describes Polluted Hoarder as just like its Loot Hoarder counterpart, but twice as big. That includes double the mana cost, attack and health, though it still only draws a single card upon death.
Is it good? Well, the stats aren’t superb — for four mana, we’d usually want something with more than two health. Then again, anything that provides card draw has strong potential. It could see some play in mid-range decks or any decks that heavily depend on cycling through to the perfect cards in your deck to win.

Corrupted Healbot
Yep, even robots aren’t safe from the horrifying influence of the old gods. Corrupted Healbot is the exact opposite of its cousin, the Antique Healbot. It’s got much more attack potential, but it heals your opponent upon death.
Between the high mana cost and heal to your opponent, a lot of players we spoke to were scoffing at this card’s potential (or lack thereof). That said, in our tests with some prebuilt Whispers of the Old Gods decks that Blizzard provided, Corrupted Healbot actually did fairly good work for us. Six attack and six health is plenty to allow for taking out annoying minions and possibly even inflicting more damage to your opponent’s face than they’ll heal whenever the bot dies.
Woo also mentioned the combo potential of playing an Auchenai Soulpriest before the Corrupted Healbot dies, ensuring that you actually damage rather than heal the enemy. Tricky stuff!

Validated Doomsayer
We love this card just for how goofy it is. A twist on the Doomsayer, a card that clears the board of minions if it survives a turn, the Validated Doomsayer is so stoked about the approach of the old gods that he actually gets powered up if left alive.
While five mana cost is asking a lot, there’s a lot to like about Validated Doomsayer. It pressures your opponent to put all their attention on this minion, lest they allow him to become a much bigger threat. It’s also a seven attack minion that cannot be removed by Big Game Hunter until you’ve attacked with him. Pretty cool!

Those look cool and all, but is this expansion just new versions of old cards?
Not at all! The next set of cards we were shown is what Blizzard is calling "cultists." These are minions who serve C’Thun and, as such, interact with him in a really interesting way.
Brode: You’ve seen the effects of the old gods in World of Warcraft, but I’ve always wondered what it would be like to unleash the power of an old god on Azeroth itself. There are four old gods — N’Zoth, Yogg-Saron, Y’Shaarj and C’Thun. C’Thun is the most insidious of the old gods. C’Thun has been gathering people to follow it, and building a cult who are trying to empower C’Thun and unleash it on the world of Azeroth.

Beckoner of Evil
That name doesn’t lie! When Beckoner of Evil gets dropped early in the game, it’s a warning sign to the other player that C’Thun is coming, and from this point, you better start preparing. Playing this card (or other cards that buff C’Thun) also includes a cool animation where a portal opens up on the side of the board to show how strong that player’s C’Thun has become.
The most important thing to note about these cultist cards is that they affect C’Thun wherever it is. Very few cards exist in the game that affect minions whether they’re in your hand, in your deck or even already on the board. It’s a cool twist.

Twilight Elder
Twilight Elder has solid stats and the ability to keep making C’Thun bigger and bigger the longer it survives on the board. He’s a three-cost with four health, so you’ve got a solid shot at keeping him around for at least a couple of turns to buff up your dark god.
Of course, none of these cultist cards function very well without C’Thun himself, so let’s take a look at the big bad guy you’re building toward.

C’Thun
How many eyeballs does one eldritch horror need? What is this tentacle-beast overcompensating for?!
In all seriousness, the decks we got to test out were built around the previous two cultist cards and C’Thun himself, and finally throwing down this monstrosity felt great. There’s a fascinating interplay when you know an opponent’s C’Thun is growing bigger and inevitably going to appear on the board. You need to hold onto removal to make sure he can’t attack, and you also need to flood the board with smaller minions to soak up as much of the initial burst of damage as possible.

Will C’Thun-based decks actually be any good?
It’s too early to say. Blizzard says there are 16 total cards in Whispers of the Old Gods that will interact with C’Thun in some way, and so far we’ve only seen two.
Donais: The challenge was to make a 10 mana card that doesn’t instantly kill your opponent but is still somehow worth putting in your deck. And then do that for all the old gods.
We can say that playing a C’Thun deck with even just these two cultists was a fun and unique challenge. But we’re skeptical on whether it will work competitively. Generally speaking, building a whole deck around one giant card is a surefire way to fail. But at least C’Thun is a giant card that makes an immediate impact when it hits the board.
C’Thun is legendary, which means it’s super rare. Isn’t it going to suck to get less rare cultist cards out of packs if I haven’t found a C’Thun yet?
That would suck. Luckily, Blizzard realized that and decided to do something kind of cool. Whenever anyone opens their first Whispers of the Old Gods pack, in addition to the five regular cards they receive, they will get C’Thun and Beckoner of Evil.
Brode: We want everyone to be excited when they open a cultist. If we didn’t give you C’Thun, you’d open a cultist and be like, "What’s a C’Thun? I have to get a legendary card to even use this?" That feels kind of bad.
C’Thun and cultist cards also will not be included in the arena drafting mode, for similar reasons.
Donais: I played arena all day with one of our designers. After playing for a full day, it was obvious that we were seeing the C’Thun cards a lot, and it was a weird experience. We weren’t likely to get C’Thun itself, and it felt off. So we’ve pulled them out of arena.
We’ve talked about doing more than that, but we don’t want to add too many weird exceptions. People start to wonder if there’s more exceptions they don’t know about. Too many rules will add more complexity, and people won’t be as confident in how things work. We don’t like the idea of removing cards from arena in general. We would only do it if we think it makes the game a lot better.
Free stuff! I love free stuff! Any other free stuff I should know about?
Blizzard says that anyone who logs into the game during the expansion’s "launch period" will receive three Whispers of the Old Gods packs for free. It wasn’t clear what "launch period" means, but presumably it’s the first few weeks following the expansion’s release.
So what about the other old gods?
We don’t have much to report yet. Blizzard is waiting to reveal the three other old gods, though it has said that each of them will be a 10-cost legendary. The other old gods will not interact with cultist cards — those are only for C’Thun — but they will have other mechanics that have yet to be announced.

"The gap between League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods is longer than maybe we would have liked"

You said there’s 134 cards in Whispers of the Old Gods, but you’ve only told us about six. Why are you holding back?
We promise we would never hide anything from you. At this time, Blizzard has only shown off the six cards mentioned above. The developer has a plan to keep revealing cards from the set bit by bit right up until launch, just like it did for The Grand Tournament.
Woo: We’re really excited about working with members of the community to slowly get that excitement going with different cards. Starting from today, there’s going to be more and more cards released until the launch.
I guess that’s fair. When will the expansion be out?
Blizzard hasn’t provided an exact date, but it says it plans to release Whispers of the Old Gods in late April or early May.
That … kind of seems like a long wait, huh?
It sure does! The break between last year’s League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods is one of the longest we’ve seen since Hearthstone’s launch in 2014. That said, there are some fairly understandable reasons for it.
In addition to designing 134 new cards, the Hearthstone team has been hard at work figuring out the proper way to implement formats (read all about that process here). The developer is also looking at cards from the Basic and Classic set that it plans to "nerf," or decrease in power.
Brode: The gap between League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods is longer than maybe we would have liked. I don’t know if making that period of time more consistent would be better. We’re paying attention to the different types of players. I think players who play a lot are always going to be on the side of wanting more faster. But I actually know a player who quit as soon as we released Curse of Naxxramas. It was too much. There are some players who will be overwhelmed. Picking the sweet spot is difficult.
Which cards are getting nerfed?
We don’t know yet, and if you believe Blizzard, the studio’s not 100 percent sure yet, either. Either way, the developer says it’s not going to tell us which cards are being nerfed until just before the patch where those changes are implemented. Blizzard will allow people to refund any of the changed cards that can be crafted at their full arcane dust value, allowing you to turn them into shiny new cards if you’d prefer.
Brode: I’ll tell you that philosophically we’re looking at cards that are very metagame-defining. Cards that are, if they don’t change, going to keep standard format from reaching its goal of being a dynamic format that changes yearly. That’s the kind of card we’re looking at. Also we’re looking at a greater percentage of druid cards, because so many of the cards that they’re using are from the Basic and Classic sets in a way that’s pretty out of line with the number of cards in those sets that other classes are using very frequently. We’re hard-pressed to make exciting expansion cards for druid for that reason.
Thank you for all of this information. Where should I look for more information on Whispers of the Old Gods in the coming weeks?
Hey, thank you for being such a good audience. If you want to keep up with new cards and mechanics from the expansion as they’re revealed, the best place to go is Blizzard’s official Hearthstone blog, where the studio will be running polls on which new cards to show off next. We’ll also be running updated info right here on Polygon, of course. And if you’re feeling extra saucy, you can check out our Hearthstone playlist on YouTube, where we both disseminate important information and play badly while making bad jokes.

Marvel’s hero is headed to Harlem Luke Cage, the third show in Marvel and Netflix’s five-series deal, will premiere this September on Netflix.
Mike Colter, the actor who played the character in Jessica Jones and who will reprise the role for his own series, announced the date during last night’s red-carpet premiere for Daredevil’s second season.
“Daredevil premieres March 18, and I will see the fans on September 30," Colter said in a video interview. To see him talk about Luke Cage, skip to 2:18 in the clip above.
The first set photos for Luke Cage landed online in December, but not much else is known about the series. Based on his comic book character, however, and from what people have seen from Cage in Jessica Jones, he’ll have to confront a dark past he’s been trying to escape while defending the city he lives in.
To learn more about Luke Cage, read Polygon’s explainer on the character here.

Turn up the volume The long-delayed PlayStation 3 version of Harmonix’s Amplitude, the Kickstarter-funded reboot of the 2003 game of the same name, is scheduled to be released in April, the studio announced today.
Harmonix said that the PS3 version is done, and that the company is submitting the game to Sony’s certification process today. The studio is hoping to be able to release the game in “early April," although that depends on how the process goes.
It’s been a long time coming. Harmonix launched its Kickstarter campaign for Amplitude in May 2014, and planned at the time to release the game on PS3 and PlayStation 4 in March 2015. In January 2015, the studio pushed back the launch to the summer. Then, in July, Harmonix announced that it would release Amplitude in December 2015 for certain Kickstarter backers and in January 2016 for everyone else — and that the PS3 version would arrive "shortly behind" the PS4 version.
Amplitude did indeed launch on PS4 in those windows; the public debut came Jan. 5. This is the first time Harmonix has provided an update on the PS3 version’s timing since mid-January, when the studio said in a Reddit AMA that it was targeting a spring 2016 release.
Harmonix also provided an update today on Amplitude’s Kickstarter rewards, some of which have still not yet been delivered to backers. The outstanding physical rewards "will be ready slightly after the PS3 version hits, given current estimates," said Harmonix. That includes the vinyl record of the game’s soundtrack, which was a reward for the $200 tier of the Kickstarter campaign and should be shipped to backers by "mid- to late-April." As for the remaining digital reward — an art book from the $70 reward tier — Harmonix is sending it to backers today.
For more on Amplitude, check out our gameplay Overview below. Harmonix’s next project, if its Fig crowdfunding campaign is successful, is a Windows PC version of Rock Band 4.

The farming RPG is a certified hit Stardew Valley, the indie take on Harvest Moon that’s quickly developed a cult following, has sold more than 425,000 copies, publisher Chucklefish confirmed to Polygon. That’s after just two weeks of availability on Steam, where the game has sat in the top half of the best sellers list since launch.

Must Read

How did indie farming sim Stardew Valley top the Steam sales chart?

The game’s developer Eric Barone — who’s worked on the game by himself over the past four years — mentioned the figure earlier this week in an interview with PC Gamer.
“I’m super happy about it and I’m blown away by the reaction, but I’m surprised too," he said of the game’s popularity with an audience extending beyond farming RPG fans.
Nearly 500,000 copies sold is an impressive feat for a farming sim with retro graphics. Stardew Valley’s success is even more respectable when looking at Steam’s overall sales numbers. SteamSpy, which collects consumer data from the platform, generated a list of the bestselling games on the marketplace in 2015.
While the stats in the chart below are not officially confirmed by Valve, the list shows that Stardew Valley isn’t far off from the sales numbers achieved by some of the biggest Steam sellers of last year.

Stardew Valley has held its own on the Steam sales chart against heavy hitters like Hitman and Tom Clancy’s The Division since it arrived on Feb. 26. This is in large part due to the fanbase that’s been building up since 2012, when Barone (known to the game’s bustling Reddit community as Concerned Ape) started blogging about the project.
Although a number fans have had access to the game prior to its release thanks to a beta period, some Stardew Valley devotees have offered to purchase copies for fans who would otherwise pirate the game. The Stardew Valley fanbase on sites like Reddit also continues to grow, with more than 23,000 subscribers currently following the open-ended farming sim’s subreddit.
Still, the game’s publisher expressed excitement about its continued success. "We knew Stardew Valley was amazing (because a lot of us were already hopelessly addicted to it well before launch) and we knew people would love it, but we’re totally blown away by all of support and coverage Eric ‘s received and the extent to which Stardew Valley is blowing up social media," a representative for Chucklefish told us. "It’s everywhere."
Check out our overview below for more on Steam’s latest indie success story.

Chase hits the eShop this summer Fans of Nintendo DS detective game Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and other adult-skewing adventure games have a new one to look forward to: Arc System Works will publish Chase: Unsolved Cases Investigation Division — Distant Memories on Nintendo 3DS eShop this summer, according to its teaser site.
Director Taisuke Kanasaki, who led development on Hotel Dusk and its sequel, Last Window: The Secret of Cape West — which never made it to the U.S. — is overseeing production on Chase. He’s joined by fellow ex-members of Hotel Dusk developer Cing on the project which, according to a translation by Gematsu, will tell a dramatic detective story reminiscent of the former studio’s games.
Cing developed narrative-focused games like the Hotel Dusk series and Trace Memory on Nintendo DS, but shut down due to bankruptcy following the release of Last Window in 2010. Hotel Dusk, which featured a unique art style created through rotoscoping and had players hold the DS like a book, launched in the U.S. in 2007. Nintendo later republished the game under its Touch! Generations branding, which identified games that might appeal to the “non-traditional" gamer.
Although Kanasaki and other Cing developers moved on to other projects after the studio’s closure, Chase is the team’s first collaboration in six years. A Western release has not yet been confirmed.

Black Canary is a comic. Well, Black Canary is a band. Well, she’s a superhero. Well, she’s the superhero who used to be known as Black Canary who’s in the process of figuring her shit out while she performs as a frontwoman for the band Black Canary. The problem is, every time the band has a gig she winds up punching folks out — whether they’re fans who get too rowdy to the band’s electronic 80’s goth rock style or the spectral sonic monsters that are hunting the group’s guitar player, a mysterious young virtuoso. The violence is great for press but bad for getting gigs.

And if that’s not enough to whet your whistle on the comic’s concept, you might want to check out the actual EP that DC Comics produced for Black Canary, with vocals by Michelle Bensimon of Caveboy, because it’s … surprisingly good. No joking.

But that’s just the prelude to what we’re here for today. DC Comics has offered Polygon the opportunity to reveal four pages and the cover of Black Canary #9, a standalone story written by Matthew Rosenberg and drawn by Moritat with colors by Lee Loughridge and a cover by Guillem March. When Black Canary took its latest gig, the band didn’t realize it would be playing the birthday party of a strange little girl, or that her rich mom would be the queenpin of the Falcone crime family — and the band definitely didn’t expect the party to be full of Gotham’s classiest supervillains and assassins.
Who gets punched first? We’ll find out on when the full comic hits stores on March 16, and you can catch up on issues #1-7 with Black Canary Vol. 1: Kicking and Screaming.

You’ll never see Charmander — or Bernie Sanders — the same way again Alex Hirsch, creator of dearly departed cartoon series Gravity Falls, is keeping himself busy on Twitter with a new project: drawing presidential candidates as different Pokémon.
Here’s Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders as Burnie the Charmander:

Tried drawing Pokemon while listening to election news, resulting in this guy #PresidentialPokemon pic.twitter.com/sI9BFhVqyz
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) March 11, 2016

Donald Trump, the businessman-turned-reality-show-host-turned-Republican-frontrunner, makes for a suitable Muk:

This one is called “Schmuck" #PresidentialPokemon pic.twitter.com/rslApd4caR
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) March 11, 2016

Hirsch seemed to have the most fun transforming GOP Senator Marco Rubio into a Diglett:

#050 "Lil Marco" TYPE: Sweaty ATTACKS: Dig self into hole WEAKNESS: Water #PresidentialPokemon pic.twitter.com/h8S918D7c6
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) March 11, 2016

But it’s this rendition of red state Senator Ted Cruz as a Hypno, drawn by former Gravity Falls storyboard artist Dana Terrace, that Hirsch liked best:

None of my drawings come close to this HypnoCruz by @DanaTerrace #PresidentialPokemon pic.twitter.com/N6jGFwPjy5
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) March 11, 2016

The illustrations were made following the latest Republican primary debate, which was held in Miami last night. Another debate is planned for later this month, although Schmuck — err, Trump — said he might sit that one out.
The Pokémon series has kept similarly busy as of late. The latest game in the franchise, Pokkén Tournament, launches March 18. See our gameplay video below for more.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a deceptively simple shooter — but that doesn’t mean it’s simplistic. Instead, PopCap Games pits its flora against undead fauna in a game that, as we said in our review, mixes “casual, cartoon aesthetics with a hardcore, team-based multiplayer shooter."
This guide will teach you how to maximize your potential in two ways. First, you’ll learn about three strategies for earning coins and buying the sticker packs worth your investment. Then we’ll teach you about picking classes. That section details the strengths, weaknesses and best strategies for each of the titular Plants and Zombies.

Table of contents

Earning coins and buying stickers

Picking classes

Plants

Zombies

EARNING COINS AND BUYING STICKER PACKS

Don’t stress about earning coins in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. You’ll earn them as you play the sequel faster than you could have in the original.
You’ll use coins to purchase sticker packs. Those provide players with all sorts of goodies like new characters, cosmetic items and consumables.
How should you spend your allowance, buying the best sticker packs and avoiding the rip-offs? We’re glad you asked. There are three philosophies — casual, cosmetic, and hardcore — and your goals will determine which path you should take.
Finally, solo players looking to fill their wallets should check out our tip about about the sewers.

Casual

Who should use it

Micro is ideal for the casual player who usually spends their time roaming around in the core sandbox, doing occasional missions and perhaps a side of Garden Ops every so often.

Strategies

Your main objective is to acquire a modest amount of coins to use for the first pack, Minions Booster, which contains offensive and defensive consumables.
You can use Boosters in nearly every game mode, and they provide a small advantage to either team. When you’re tasked with invading enemy encampments, use them to summon advancing attackers. On defense, use them to sprout turrets.
Completing missions tends to yield a small coin increase. Winning grants bigger bonuses, and failing before you reach the final wave is often directly tied to the amount of consumables you’ve used.
Keep a sharp eye on your potted plants or zombie robots. Expending too many and placing more onto the battlefield will cut into your bottom line.

Recommended characters

Use the Sunflower and Scientist because they can heal those valuable resources and help cut down your costs.

Cosmetic

Who should use it

The mid style is a tad less rewarding than your other options — unless you’re really big into cosmetic rewards.

Strategies

Stick with mid-tier items like the Wondrous Pack of Greatness (pictured above) if you’re looking for cosmetic rewards.
This isn’t an efficient strategy for powerful upgrades, though. You’ll end up with a lot of cosmetic choices and nothing substantial. For example, buying a mid-tier item like Wondrous, Fertilizer or Brainz pack equals out to roughly two-fifths of a Phenomenal pack, which isn’t an ideal exchange rate.
Spending a lot on mid-tier items will also result in less cashflow to spend on consumables. That, in turn, will ensure that solo modes will be more difficult. Your rewards will decline, and you won’t have enough to spend on consumables.
This is a budget-conscious path, and you need to be careful with your money. Never buy Helpful Fun packs. They only provide cosmetics, and they cost three times as much as a Minions pack for the same amount of consumables.

Recommended characters

Any class can wrack up enough points to earn mid-tier rewards.

Hardcore

Who should use it

The macro style is for players who want to work a little harder but unlock more content. It’s all about maximum spending for maximum rewards.

Strategies

Macro is designed for for top tier purchases at the 75,000 Phenomenal level. Each purchase will ensure that you get another subclass. Instead of acquiring new character parts piecemeal, you’ll get every single part you need and unlock it instantly.
Saving up for this level of purchases isn’t as time-consuming as you might think. It’s efficient to play online, catering your playstyle and class choices to the available quests and switching sides as applicable. You can complete these against bots, if you wish. Before you know it, your cup will runneth over with new characters to choose from, which can increase your efficiency even further.

Recommended characters

Heavy damage characters like the Imp and the Chomper will earn you more coins for your kills. It’s important to help out your team when needed, but for bot matches, dealing more damage will end the game quicker.

Solo players should head to the sewers

Going to the sewers (located in the middle of the main Backyard Battleground hub) will also grant you a snow globe hunting quest, which pays 500 coins per globe. It’s the easiest kickstart for solo players in the game.
If you played the original, go to the mailbox immediately in either base and import your prior account. This will not only grant you currency bonuses, but will also bring over any rankings you have acquired from the first game.

PICKING CLASSES

In this section, we’ll teach you about each character in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 — Plants and Zombies — including their strengths and weaknesses, an overview of their weapons and strategies for success.

Plants

Cactus

Citron

Cactus

Kernel Corn

Peashooter

Rose

Sunflower

Cactus

Role

As a straightforward sniper, the Cactus follows a typical shooter archetype.

Weapons and strategies

Use a Cactus at the start of progression-based maps. Those areas tend to be more open and vast, allowing you to take advantage of its superior range. This goes double for the Potato Mine, which you can place on objectives right away, something most enemies won’t expect.
The Cactus is great on defense, to, thanks to the Tallnut Battlement power. Similar to the All-Star’s shield, it acts as an instant defense system in a pinch. In Garden Warfare 2 the Cactus is a tad less effective than it was in the original. Other classes now have scout potential, like Deadbeard’s parrot.
When in doubt, place a mine. Placing a Potato Mine or a Potato Nugget Mine near objectives is an obvious choice, but using mines on chokepoints and tunnels where there’s no other alternative route will net you more kills. A more active playstyle with the Cactus will yield good results.

Weaknesses

Like most snipers, the Cactus does not do well when confronted. Stick to high ground.

Citron

Role

Citron is one of the safer picks on either side because he has mobility and lots of health.

Weapons and strategies

His morph ball gives him tons of mobility. His health pool and his shield (which can block fire for teammates as well, if they rally behind him) make him great for defense, too. His primary role is to serve as a tank or distraction.
His actual firepower isn’t all that impressive. Focus on lighter targets like Rose or Sunflower first. He does very well against the Imp’s mech. Citron’s EMPeach will shut it down. Use that tactic while communicating with your team, so everyone can focus fire on it.

Weaknesses

To counter Citron, enemies will want to find a way to get behind it or attack its sides, where the shield isn’t deployed. It’s a bit hard to do so, because his ability to instantly move around in ball form can make him rather slippery.

Kernel Corn

Role

Kernel Corn is an odd character who will only suit specific players that are willing to learn the nuances of his balanced loadout. He has an answer for nearly everything, but every ability needs to be aimed with surgical precision.

Weapons and strategies

Like the Soldier, he can also jump before using his leap power for additional height. Use that to escape melee classes like the Chomper, as they cannot possibly pursue you.
Aim his rocket carefully before it launches, or you’ll miss the target. His Matrix-esque high jump can be a really great escape tool if your enemy isn’t expecting it, but again, you need to line up your sights perfectly to really pull off the maximum amount of hits possible and ensure that your foe isn’t just going to readjust their aim and take you out when you fall.
The same goes for Butter Barrage, Kernel Corn’s air strike ability. If you throw it haphazardly, an opposing team will just walk out of the way and let the rest of its clock run down. Place it at chokepoints — or better yet, on top of objectives — to ensure peak efficiency.
When you’re fighting in indoor arenas, keep an eye out for holes in the ceiling. The Butter Barrage air strike will still work in those zones.

Weaknesses

Kernel Corn has great power — but only if you can aim it well.

Chomper

Role

The team brute, ideal for players who want spend their time fighting.

Weapons and strategies

The Chomper thrives in close quarters combat, and any time spent not engaging as a Chomper is wasted.
His core power is to chomp up enemies instantly from behind, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve. Use the Spikeweed to ensnare enemies. Instead of using them in isolated areas, where it’s reduced to a stalling tactic, place them in more open areas. As your enemies dangle, your teammates can take advantage.

Weaknesses

Maps with lots of vertical vantage points such as Lunar Landing and Moon Base Z are terrible for the Chomper, as it’s nigh impossible to ascend and counter them. Since most characters now have some sort of added mobility, it’s even easier to get out of harm’s way and lay down some fire. Play carefully as a Chomper, surgically choosing your battles to cater to one-on-one affairs. If you’re seen and there isn’t cover nearby, it’s basically lights out.

Peashooter

Role

The easiest character to use on the plant side.

Weapons and strategies

He sports steady, powerful shots that cause splash damage, so they don’t have to be exact. The Chili Bean Bomb is killer for laying down concentrated fire on objectives. This is applicable on offense and defense. A strong barrage of covering fire will knock almost any class outside of an objective ring. Against multiple Peashooters, no class will be able to withstand the heat for long.
Peashooter is also one of the most mobile characters in the game, thanks to the Hyper power. The Peashooter can reach heights that nearly no other class can. Try using both the Bean Bomb and the extended Hyper leap in tandem to deliver an aerial payload, then use the rest of your Hyper cooldown to find a safe haven.
Mobility is the Peashooters biggest ally. Saving a Hyper power to react to a bad situation or a surprise attack can save your life.
Use the Pea Gatling gun when players have the high ground. It does a surprising amount of damage, so try using it to blow up crates and the like without fear of reprisal.

Weaknesses

If anyone catches wind of your gatling stance, it’s probably the end for your Peashooter.
The Peashooter is a prime example of a jack of all trades, master of none. This class can’t make great pushes like the Chompers can, and too many Peashooters can result in a lack of tactical diversity, which could cause problems when taking objectives or dealing with different enemy classes.

Rose

Role

Rose fits the fragile caster playstyle, as a character who packs a ton of support abilities but not much health.

Weapons and strategies

Stick to the outside of the battlefield. Learn to recognize what enemy players are earning the most kills in any given match, and take them out.
Her key strategy is to polymorph or shape-shift high priority targets into goats, rendering them useless while a larger firefight plays out and your team has the advantage. Characters like an aggressive Super Brainz, for example, or a heal-happy Scientist, are perfect targets — especially if the enemy is employing several of them.
Using her teleport ability as an offensive option is appealing, but it’s also important to save it as a getaway. Float toward a teammate while teleporting. Enemies will often pursue a vulnerable Rose, leading them into a trap. For times when you absolutely need to run in to save an objective, using the area-of-effect Time Snare ability is ideal. Otherwise, focus on your other abilities to dole out actual damage.

Weaknesses

The term glass cannon suits her well, so don’t charge into the fray or dawdle on the front line. Instead, adopt a more tactical viewpoint and approach to battles.

Sunflower

Role

Everyone needs at least one Sunflower — that’s how essential they are. If you don’t see one, try to help out your side and do your part to heal the group.

Weapons and strategies

Without at least one Sunflower, defensive teams will slowly be overcome as they guard objectives, or they’ll run out of steam before they can take them on offense. Garden Warfare 2 allows for a small amount of natural health regeneration, but against an aggressive team, it won’t amount to much as constant fire stalls it. Use the Sunflower to heal faster than the game will.
Unlike the Scientist, you actually want to be in the action constantly. Sunflowers can deploy a self-healing plant that perpetually doles out health pickups. It’s easy to drop on a whim both in high traffic zones or just to heal yourself after taking a few sniper hits.
Like its Scientist counterpart, the Sunflower can also heal potted plant defenses or NPC plants. It gives the class a more active playstyle, so pay particular attention to NPCs. They have a health meter above them, which is only visible to healer classes. Use those to determine what needs your attention.

Weaknesses

Note that while the Heal Beam and Heal Flower are effective, the Sunbeam isn’t a great ability. Use it sparingly. It doesn’t do much damage, and it leaves players completely vulnerable. Also, while it’s easy to drop a pot and save yourself, getting caught off guard without it during cooldown will likely spell instant doom.

Zombies

All-Star

Captain Deadbeard

Engineer

Foot Soldier

Imp

Scientist

Super Brainz

All-Star

Role

The All-Star is the perfect beginner pick.

Weapons and strategies

On offense, the All-Star’s cooldown-based gun, the Football Cannon, has an unlimited clip and is effective at any range. He’s a good counter for close-quarters plants, so use his rush moves — Sprint Tackle and Ultra Tackle — to engage or run away. Use his bomb-like Imp Punt bomb to scare away opponents.
On defense, use his Dummy Shield to save you and a teammate, particularly when you’re inside of an objective. When you’re far away fighting Cacti, use the shield to duck in and out of cover and get a more precise line of sight.

Weaknesses

The All-Star’s downfall is his complete lack of maneuverability. If your enemy can get to high ground, you’ll need to rely on your teammates, which hinders your efficiency. Try to look up often and immediately dash out of harm’s way with Sprint Tackle or spring a Dummy Shield or Shield Decoy at the first sign of trouble.

Captain Deadbeard

Role

The good captain is the wild card of the game whose aggressive style can excel in low ranked games. That can be tough for new players to adjust to, though.

Weapons and strategies

Captain Deadbeard’s primary job is to take down as many enemies as possible, so use his Barrel Blast for multi-kills. It’s harder to pull off in a simple deathmatch, but if enemies congregate around an area, ignite the fuse early and run around from a corner to take down as many people as you can. It’s a very high-risk, high-reward playstyle that isn’t for everyone, but this approach will work on nearly every map.
He can push bases on offense like a general. Try to forge your way to higher ground with brute force jumping. Pace your Cannon Rodeo ability on high ground and target as many enemies as possible.
He’s also a good character to use while on voice chat, when communicating with your teammates. Use his Parrot Pal ability to determine where enemies are coming from and tell your teammates. Just be sure to use it in a safe place. It leaves you vulnerable like killstreaks in Call of Duty.

Weaknesses

Captain Deadbeard is slow as molasses.

Engineer

Role

Engineers are a niche class, but they excel at countering specific plant types like the beefy Chomper, thanks to their default Concrete Launcher.

Weapons and strategies

Engineers are surprisingly resilient. They can take a beating, but they aren’t as effective at most roles (for example, the Foot Soldier has more mobility, the All-Star is tougher). They’re a great defense against enemy Chompers, perhaps more than any other class combination. If the enemy team has too many Chompers, deploy a few Engineers and use the Sonic Grenade to force them out of the ground.

Weaknesses

Outside of using the Jackhammer occasionally to gain a quick burst of speed, Engineers are woefully slow. Unless the opposing side is using a ton of Chompers, stick to one or two Engineers, mostly because their strengths are limited, and other classes do everything they do, but better.

Foot Soldier

Role

Like the Peashooter for the plants, the Foot Soldier is the most well-rounded class the zombies have. He’s a safe choice, too, because he can adapt to nearly every situation. In other words, if you’re completely unsure about who to pick, go with the Foot Soldier.

Weapons and strategies

He has mobility with the Rocket Jump (a jetpack boost that you can trigger after jumping), firepower with rockets and area control with poison grenades. The rocket takes time to prime, so it’s best to use on stationary targets like Sunflowers or Peashooters that are grounded by their abilities. It’s also great when enemies are trying to take or defend objectives inside of the target zone.
There’s no need to go up close and personal if you’re on defense. The range of your standard rifle and rockets are enough to stay out of harm’s way.

Weaknesses

The Foot Soldier’s only real weakness is that he needs other classes to make a balanced team. Too many Foot Soldiers will result in a lack of team synergy — the advantage you get for entering battles with different classes — and you’ll have too much trouble with objectives because your overall health pool isn’t as great as a more diverse team.

Imp

Role

The Imp seems scrawny at first, but the power to call in a mighty mech every so often makes him the most formidable Zombie in the game.

Weapons and strategies

Although players will likely want to use the Robo Call mech ability at the perfect time, saving it can be a burden. Use it in situations where you can engage multiple enemies. It’s also great at any point where enemies will keep flowing in, like spawn points or objectives. Don’t wait too long, though. If you do, you can potentially used, cooled down and used another Robo Call while you were waiting.
Though it’s tempting, avoid using the mech during those few moments where you’re about to capture a point on offense. Ideally, you can recover your cooldown on your way to the next objective.
Blowing all of your cooldowns before using the Robo Call is also a viable way to make the most of your weaker form.

Weaknesses

Outside of his mech, the Imp is the most fragile unit in the game. You’re always a prime target because of your low health pool, so lean on teammates for defense. Stick to cover and use the element of surprise as often as possible.
Use your Impakata ability to engage ranged enemies like Cacti with 100 shots from your Imp Blaster. It’s also usseful as a last resort, when you can do as much damage as possible before your untimely death.

Scientist

Role

The core healer of the Zombie army whose teleportation abilities favor aggressive play.

Weapons and strategies

Use his Warp and Energy Warp abilities to get into confrontations and heal your teammates. While it’s important to stay alive, saving their cooldowns to heal multiple teammates that are attempting to grab an objective — and dying in the act — is a worthwhile tradeoff.
Like the Sunflower, you can also heal your stationary zombie bots and even non-playable characters in the Backyard Battleground. If you’re playing co-op, having one Scientist in the mix is a good idea, especially for Garden Ops, where your resources and respawns are limited.

Weaknesses

Scientists have little in the way of offensive capabilities. This class’ main close-range gun, the Goo Blaster, isn’t ideal in most situations, and enemies can easily counter a Sticky Explody Ball.

Super Brainz

Role

The Superman-esque Super Brainz is another tough character to play, but he’s perfect for getting into the thick of non-deathmatch gametypes like Gardens & Graveyards.

Weapons and strategies

Super Brainz can leap high into the air without using a cooldown or special ability. That makes him perfect for hunting down pesky Cactus snipers. He’s also a good counter to teams with a heavy amount of Peashooters or Kernels, which can leap to high ground with ease.
If you find that your teammates aggressive on offense, consider Super Brainz, especially in close quarters maps like Great White North, which doesn’t have a lot of open, outdoor arenas.

Weaknesses

Super Brainz is easy to catch in open areas, where his lack of range leaves him without counters. Weave in and out of cover at all times to prevent this from happening. If there’s an awning or a corridor, use it to your advantage.

All 11 scripted series currently on air to return In an unprecedented move, The CW has decided to forego canceling any of its series, choosing instead to renew all 11 scripted shows currently airing, according to Deadline.
That means popular series like The Flash, Arrow, Vampire Diaries, The 100, iZombie, Reign and Jane the Virgin will be returning alongside new shows like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legends of Tomorrow. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s first season won over critics and took home a few awards, while Legends of Tomorrow premiered to incredibly high ratings and has maintained a steady audience.
Supernatural will also be returning for its 12th season, with stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles reportedly signed on for an additional 13th season.
Despite not canceling any of the series, it doesn’t look like The CW is planning to skip this upcoming pilot season. According to Deadline, the network is still looking to add two or three shows to its fall roster and will premiere it’s newest series, Containment, next month.
Even with the renewals, however, ratings are down for a number of shows, which may indicate their upcoming seasons could be final. Ratings for The Vampire Diaries and its spinoff series The Originals are down from last year and the shows’ main stars may be looking to move onto other ventures.
The CW has not yet announced what they’ll be ordering to pilot for the fall, but that information should be revealed closer to the summer season.