Sunflower

Sunflower is a playable plant class in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 and the member of the plant team. Unlike its predecessors, she is not present for the collection of sun (as it only exists in Boss Mode), but is instead a class designed for healing other plants. This makes her a more important class than some others, but it should be noted that there are few other ways to heal.

Stickerbook description
''Sunflower is the backbone of the Plant team and keeps her teammates in the fight with her superior healing and sunny personality. She prefers to stay near the back of the fight, lending assistance with her long range attacks.''

In-game description
''Her Heal Beam and Heal Flower make Sunflower the premier medic. Her Sun Pulse packs a punch, too!''

AI Health (GW2 only)

 * Easy: 66
 * Normal: 88
 * Hard: 110
 * CRAAAAZY: 132

Variants

 * -|GW2=

Primary weapon
Sun Pulse is Sunflower's Primary weapon, all facts below applies to a fully upgraded weapon.
 * The base close range damage per hit is 8 and the critical is 10.
 * The max DPS at close range is 62.2.
 * The base middle range damage per hit is 7 and the critical is 9.
 * The max DPS at middle range is 56.0.
 * The base long range damage per hit is 6 and the critical is 8.
 * The max DPS at long range is 37.3.
 * This weapon deals no splash damage.
 * The ammo in each clip is 50.
 * The reload time is 2.0 seconds.
 * The projectile speed is medium.
 * The weapon is fully automatic.
 * The bloom is low

Abilities
GW2=

Photosynthesis Upgrade
Converts sunlight into extra energy that helps her reload faster.

Extra Sunlight!
Extended sun tanning session results in increased sunlight ammo capacity.

Super Nova Sunlight
Converts the power of the sun into a more damaging sun pulse.

With
Sunflowers are generally best used as a support class. When teaming up, Sunflowers should be distributed somewhat equally, with at least one Sunflower in every group. When healing allies, Sunflower should try to prioritize the plants more in need of healing than others, but should also take into consideration how much damage that is inflicted on those in need of healing. Chompers are better to heal than Peashooters, and Peashooters are better to heal than Cacti.

Consistent healing (especially if you stay in one general location making it easier for allies to find you when injured) will grant your team an advantage as they will be able to outlast the other team due them being healthier on average.

Pocketing (focusing on one particular plant) can be useful if there are no other teammates around or if the pocketed plant is engaged in combat against a stronger or multiple zombies. This has the advantage of increasing the chances of the pocketed plant surviving the damage race and allows Chomper to tank damage better until it gets close enough to eat the targeted zombie or vanquish it with bites. The downsides are that this can deny your teammates from getting health so spread out your healing if there are multiple allies around. Also, if your pocket gets vanquished, the enemy will automatically switch to targeting you in which Sunflower's low health and below-average attack power will play against you.

Sunflower's primary weapon is mediocre in terms of attack power. While she does pack a massive punch up close, Sunflower is disadvantaged due to her low health. Therefore, this weapon is best used for assisting teammates and self-protection. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself, because the weapon's noise as well as its bright color, especially on nighttime maps, will give away your location easily. This, combined with your low health makes you extremely vulnerable.

Sunflowers can heal each other, forming infinite healing capabilities. This is useful when constant damage is being enforced onto a team with toxic or fire variants, or abilities such as Zombie Stink Cloud. The downside to this strategy is having to switch the heal beam between teammates, and can be thwarted with heavy damage and targeting on specific individual plants.

Against
When fighting Sunflower, be aware of her surroundings. Sunflowers usually travel with others so make sure to bring someone with you before you approach them. It is common for Sunflowers to place down Heal Flowers or Dark Flowers mid fight. If you see this and no-one else does anything, vanquish the Heal Flower (or Dark Flower) before you continue your fight with Sunflower. Dark Flowers are especially effective against Imp or Princess Morbucks due to the fact that they seemingly never miss their shots (Do it for Imp and Princess Morbucks). Eliminating the Heal Flower (or Dark Flower) severely hinders Sunflower's ability to support her allies, defend objectives and defend herself.

Against Sunflower
If you catch Sunflower pocketing a plant, try to vanquish Sunflower first. Doing this makes it easier to vanquish the plant that was being pocketed.

Not vanquishing Sunflower first Example
You are 2v1 against Sunflower and Chomper. You manage to vanquish Chomper, but Sunflower finishes you off. She then proceeds to revive Chomper you just vanquished.

Vanquishing Sunflower first Example
You are 2v1 against Sunflower and Chomper. You manage to vanquish Sunflower, leaving Chomper almost defenceless. Because Chomper isn't being pocketed, he can be delt with much easier.

Garden Ops
In Garden Ops, Sunflower is a vital class member due to her healing ability. Since Sunflower can heal, it is essential to heal any damaged plants or potted plants to keep them alive, especially Heal Flowers. Your main goal in Garden Ops is to provide healing support with Heal Beam and Heal Flower. In combat, Sunflower is physically weak but accurate and her Sunbeam ability is powerful making it a good offense support. The main disadvantages of Sunflower is her low health. As such, beware that Sunflower is easy to be vanquished by most zombies.

Team Vanquish
In Team Vanquish, Sunflowers are game-changing, due to points being taken away from the zombies for revived plants. Sunflower can revive fallen plants far faster than other types of plant. Sunflower could sneak around the battlefield healing plants, avoiding the zombies altogether. Or, Sunflower could stick around other, stronger plants, healing them when they get hurt. The Heal Flower is of very good use for multitasking. Sunflower could be over reviving and healing plants at one spot, while the Heal Flower takes care of injured plants that come across it. Sunflower should only use her Sunbeam ability at medium-close range, in order to avoid unwanted attention from other zombies.

Gardens & Graveyards
For Gardens & Graveyards, Sunflower's healing abilities come to great use, as healing teamates keeps them in the fight longer. Sunflowers can also help by attacking the Zombies while healing. The Sunbeam or Solar Flare Beam and Dark Flower are the only abilities in which Sunflower can deal damage not just with her primary weapon. If you're in a tight situation (eg. multiple Zombies in the area), using these abilities can greatly affect the outcome of the fight. Sunflowers can also be useful for healing potted plants, since they usually get vanquished quickly. A very damaging plant (such as Doom-shroom) and Sunflower healing it both fighting against the zombies could make for a successful duo. Just remember to re-plant Spawnable Plants when they get vanquished, or zombies will just trample through easier.

Sunflowers are effective in the final objectives of this game mode. Please note that the Mega Flower cannot be healed in any way, but try to heal Spawnable Plants and playable plants that are attacking the zombies to prevent the Mega Flower's demise. In Wall-nut Hills, frequently heal plants defending the mansion to better stop the zombies from getting in and try to heal any plants that guard the teleporter since if it gets built, the zombies will be able to bypass Wall-nut and reach the mansion more easily. Do not bother healing plants who are running around in the open area where Wall-nuts roll as this puts you in a great danger since you do not only have to avoid death by zombies, but from Wall-nut as well. Dark Flowers and the Sunbeam can be useful for defending the mansion as Sunflower as well. In Main Street, a good strategy is to guard the Corn Mortars with your Sunbeam or Solar Flare Beam to damage any zombies coming through. Also, a strategy is to heal plants that are vanquishing zombies attempting to plant the Z4 explosives. In Cactus Canyon, Sunflowers are less reliable due to the relatively spread-out and messy gameplay, but their use is still in healing plants defending off the zombies from pushing the golf bomb to the hole. The Sunbeam and Dark Flowers will not usually work because the zombies are behind the golf bomb, which cannot be damaged from the front and a lot of fighting here takes place at long range.

Gnome Bomb
In Gnome Bomb, Sunflowers can be useful by healing plants defending their gardens or healing plants defusing a bomb. Alternatively, Sunflower can be used to support an offensive push towards a tombstone, minimizing casualties. All of these can be risky, so if possible, revive someone dead and let teammates revive you too to put you in the fight. Also, Sunflowers can heal plants carrying a bomb or run up to and attack a zombie holding the bomb due to their fast movement speed (this should generally only be done as a last resort).

Vanquish Confirmed!
In this mode, Sunflowers lose some of their effectiveness against the team as reviving players does nothing toward the score of the opposing team, however, consistent healing is recommended as it minimizes the chance of a teammate dying and dropping an orb. Should this happen though, try to pick it up before the Zombie. Sunflower's fast movement speed mean that you should be able to reach dropped orbs faster than most Zombies. As usual, the healing strategy to help other teammates fight off the zombies always applies.

Suburbination
In Suburbination, Sunflowers can help by healing plants defending a garden or reviving vanquished teammates, just like Gnome Bomb. Sunflowers can also capture a garden faster than most plants, like the strategy explained for Vanquish Confirmed!.

Taco Bandits
In Taco Bandits, since it is similar to Gnome Bomb, one of the strategies there applies. Sunflowers can heal plants fighting against zombies stealing the taco or assist plants in resetting the Taco if it gets stolen. Also, one of the Gardens and Graveyards strategies applies in this mode, heal the potted plants and defend your base. Doing those both will give you a good start, and do not forget to heal plant characters too.

Legends of the Lawn DLC

 * Increased damage
 * Distance at which projectiles inflict full damage was increased

Trivia

 * She is one of only three plants to be in all Plants vs. Zombies games, others being Peashooter and Wall-nut.
 * However, Wall-nut is only seen as a part of one of Cactus' abilities and the projectiles of the Tallnut Cannon.
 * In the Promotional Gameplay, she has an Automatic Ability in what appears to be Sundrops that fall from the back of her neck every few seconds. These Sundrops probably heal teammates much like the Heal Flower. It must have been removed during development probably because it would have been too overpowering for her to be able to heal teammates even when she is not doing anything or while she is using her Sunbeam or Solar Flare Beam abilities.
 * The Heal Weed now possesses this function.
 * She has the lowest number of variants out of all plants.
 * In Garden Warfare 2, Sunflower can also heal plant bosses (Big Stump, Super Bean, Giga Torchwood, Sunflower Queen, Major Man, Erica the Red, Princess Bluebelle and Green Wing). However, since you can't see their HP on display, like the other plants, the player use either their Heal Beam or their Rainbow Heal Beam, and the boss will have +2 HP constantly healing it. The player would know once the boss is fully healed if there is no more +2 HP healing.
 * This same concept also applies to Scientist.


 * There was an image with her in it and the words read Petal of Honor, a pun on the Medal of Honor, the United States's highest military honor, and the game of the same name by Electronic Arts.
 * Also in another promotional image, she appears with Hot Rod Chomper and there are words that read Need for Seed, a pun and parody of Need for Speed, a racing-related game from Electronic Arts.
 * She is the fastest character in the game without speed boosts.
 * According to the description of Fire Flower, Fire Pea once went on a date with her, suggesting their date is related to Fire Flower's existence.
 * The description is a double entendre, meaning it can be interpreted two ways. Either Fire Flower was conceived that day, or Sunflower was set ablaze by Fire Pea.
 * She is the only plant in to have her abilities unlocked from left to right (Garden Warfare).
 * She is the only plant to have all of her variants returning in Garden Warfare 2 since Sunflower is not promotional.
 * She is the second plant that can speak in Garden Warfare; having one of Sunflower's gestures making her say "Boogie, boogie, boogie!"
 * In the original Garden Warfare, she is the only plant class to have lower than average health.
 * When executing a reload, Sunflower always looks up at the sun; even if she is indoors or it is night.
 * In the Trouble in Zombopolis DLC, she, along with all of her variants, have their primary weapons' damage increased (10 to 20 percent).
 * There is a glitch in both the games, where the top four petals of Sunflower would disappear sometimes.