Plants vs. Zombies Walkthrough - Playing Level 3 Is Easy
This is the continuation of the Complete Guide to Beating Level 3 in Plants vs. Zombies, Popcap’s award-winning tower defense game. Parts of this walk through refers to strategies used in previous levels which can be found here. Players should concentrate on obtaining as many coins as possible from zombies while playing Level 3 and the mini-games that can be discovered during this stage. Stage 3 of PvZ is the first pool stage, and many new water plants appear for the first time here. In addition, several new zombies, most of them water-based, begin rearing their ugly heads on this stage as well. Though the Zen Garden is not yet available to players at level 3, they can already be saving the needed coins to fully stock the Zen Garden.
Beating Level 3-4
Recommended Plants: Sunflower, Potato Mine, Wall-Nut, Snow Pea, Repeater, Chomper, Lily Pad, Tangle Kelp
Now that the Tangle Kelp is in play, the most effective strategy for the board changes somewhat. The pool lanes become extremely easy to defend early in the game, and so offense and defense in the grass lanes becomes the primary focus.
Again, place sunflowers as rapidly as possible in columns 1 and 2 filling up the grass lanes first. Use the potato mine to defend by planting the potato mine in the correct row once the zombie pops its nasty little head onto the board. As soon as all sunflowers are planted or you have enough sun where you can spend 25 suns without being delayed in planting the next sunflower, put a Tangle Kelp in column 5. Repeat the same thing for the 2nd pool row, and t
hen begin building to the right from there. This allows you to put down lily pads for your Repeaters and Snow Peas.
Plant Repeaters as needed until you have enough money to plant them in any row. Once repeaters are planted, begin alternating between Snow Peas and Wall-nuts. Wall-nuts have a very long cool-down timer, so get those planted early.
When you beat level 3-4, the last zombie will drop a black key. They key gives you access to Crazy Dave’s Twiddy Dinkies, a shop that he runs out of the back of his car. He sells some great stuff including extra card slots, and now your money has even more value. I bought Pool Cleaners ($1000) right away. They serve the same function in the pool lanes as the lawn mowers do for the grass lanes.
Beating Stage 3-5 – Big Trouble, Little Zombie
Stage 3-5 is a simple mini game where cards fly across the screen in a conveyor-belt style system. The plants that show up in this particular game consists of the following: Peashooter, Wall-nut, Lily Pad, and the Cherry Bomb. Teeny tiny zombies with lower hit points come stampeding across the lawn as soon as the game starts. Your Peashooters can handle most of them, and they need to go in columns 1, 2 and 3. Wall-nuts are vital on this board because they force the zombies to bunch up which makes the Cherry Bombs much more effective.
Make sure to use the Cherry Bombs in rows 2 and 5 only because they will destroy everything in the rows above and below them. That includes zombies in the water. Thus, time your Cherry Bombs to get the most zombies as you can. If you place your Wall-nuts in column 6 and 7, you can hold them all there and blow them up with two well-placed cherry bombs. This board operates in exactly the same way as the mini-game, Big Trouble, Little Zombie.
At the end of Stage 3-5, the Jalapeno drops. It destroys everything in whatever row it is placed. At a reasonable cost of 125 suns, it is a valuable tool.
Beating Stage 3-7
Recommended Plants: Sunflower, Potato Mine, Repeater, Snow Pea, Lily Pad, Tangle Kelp, Wall-nut, Spikeweed
Zombonis make another appearance, but Spikeweeds serve as an even better defense than Jalapenos. Follow the strategy used on previous boards and set up your Sunflowers, Repeaters, Snow Peas, and Wall-nuts. Place Spikeweeds in column 8 and 9. Feel free to do this early, and place them in rows where you already have Wall-nuts. The zombies can stand in the Spikeweed while chewing on Wall-nuts and take damage the entire time.
The Spikeweeds will also blow up any zombonis that run over them, but the explosion also destroys the Spikeweed. Since the zombonis will not show up until late in the second wave, you should have plenty of money to put down new Spikeweeds. The Spikeweeds should make this board extremely easy.
At the end of stage 3-7, the Torchwood drops. This plant adds fire damage to any Repeaters, Peashooters, and Threepeaters, but it melts all Snow Peas. At 175 suns, this is an effective way to increase your damage permanently in every row.
Conclusion and Contiuation to Plants vs Zombies Walk through
These three boards will give expert players very little trouble, but new players should pay attention to the strategies learned in these early and mid pool boards. They will come in handy when the night time, fog-heavy level 4 boards start. The rest of level 3 become slightly harder, but they mostly serve to prepare players for level 4.
This post is part of the series: Playing Plants vs. Zombies: A Guide to Beating All the Levels
This detailed guide has tips, hints, and strategies for beating every level in Plants vs. Zombies. This guide is designed to be used by people who need a little help to win specific stages.
