Well, given that a hell of a lot of you seemed to like my ranking of the Zomboss Battles,
I thought I’d try and capitalise on that by ranking every world’s Gargantuar battle.
What defines a Gargantuar battle, you ask? Well good point given how the concept has
dwindled over time, because back in the day, these were important levels to obtain keys
to unlock other worlds, hell, in the early days they pretty much WERE the boss battles.
Then from Big Wave Beach onwards they started introducing Gargantuars before these levels,
and changed the progression system – TWICE, and made it worse BOTH times, so these just
seem like ordinary levels now, but hey, they’ve got a fancy skull to mark them, so they must have
something going for them right? So yeah, here’s a ranking of the massive attack in every world
from easiest to hardest to beat – in my opinion of course. I’m GoldNinja Vlogspot, let’s go.
The easiest Gargantuar battle is Ancient Egypt. Pretty predictable given this level is incredibly
easy, well unless you’re VileHyperion who used this level as evidence that this game
is pay to win. #GITGUD! Granted, when I first played the game I thought it was a bit harsh
to have a Gargantuar stage this early, but honestly, they give you all the tools
you need and despite the fact it got moved to the sixth level as opposed to the eighth one,
over time it’s become so easy that they might as well be blowing your nose for you at this point.
Look no further than the fact it’s the only one you get lawn mowers in. It’s essentially
the tutorial stage for future Gargantuar stages. The only difficult aspect of this level is that
besides Potato Mines there’s no big damage dealers for the Gargs, so your best bet is
to boost Bloomerangs, but with enough Iceberg Lettuces and Wall-Nuts, this should be a breeze.
Number 10 is Lost City. This has a somewhat unique structure;
as opposed to Gargantuars in both of the flags, there’s three flags, but the Garg doesn’t rear
his ugly swede until the end of the second one, which is quickly followed by the final flag,
which features one in every lane. Sounds pretty tricky, right? Oh, wait, you get THIS guy to use
against them, making the fight easier than peeling an orange. And if you’re low on Cherry Bombs,
well, you get Lava Guavas too, and the Red Stinger’s Plant Food is great for handling Gargs.
The only real nuisance of this level, besides the number of flying threats is the fact you’re
recommended to use two rows of Red Stingers and AKEEs, but due to the mechanics of Red Stingers,
they get weaker if they’re planted past the 3rd column. But hey, not even the iconic duo
of Excavator and Parasol Zombies can get in your way. And yes I’m using this image again
and then collecting all your tears to provide water for my goldfish – which doesn’t even EXIST.
Going into single digits now and up next is Pirate Seas. This boss stage may have some
pretty weak offensive plants – Kernel Pult and Snapdragon, but it’s one where I came up with a
particular strategy for it and just ran with that – setting Snapdragons up so they can deal with the
two plankless lanes, boosting Kernel-Pults at the start of every wave to sort out the Raiding
Parties and seagulls, and of course Snapdragon’s plant food absolutely craps on the Gargs.
The biggest challenge to this level is that you can’t plant Potato Mines on planks – this
is why I plant the Snapdragons far back. Spikeweeds are very useful too, one to
easily deal with Barrel Rollers and two because if a Gargantuar is closing in on your house,
then you can plant one at the back and boost it in order to drag the Garg back to the beginning.
Overall, it seems intimidating, but it’s pretty easy to overcome.
8 is Frostbite Caves. The first battle to lack Wall-Nuts, this boss fight is the polar opposite
of Pirate Seas in a way – while in that fight I pretty much use the same arrangement every time,
in this fight it’s almost completely random, due to the oddball placement of the slider tiles.
And speaking of random, the Repeater and Spikeweed strolled along to join this fight,
because Lord knows they weren’t feeling generous enough to give us the Fire Peashooter in this.
The slider tiles mean that the density of some lanes will be greater than others, but you can
cut them off with Chard Guards or use Spikeweeds as traps for when they are pushed along. The
other challenge is the fact the Sloth Gargantuars throw not one, not two, not four – but THREE imps.
This doesn’t sound too difficult given the plants can dispatch of Imps quite quickly, but the
slider tiles can move them all over the place. Another slightly tricky aspect of this battle is
that you get no instant kill plants, and with Blockhead Zombies’ presence, your best bet is
to plant food Repeaters. (Also, the game NEVER giving you Hot Potatoes when they’re needed.)
Number 7 is Far Future. The difficulty of this level is instantly raised just by virtue of the
fact the Gargantuar Prime is significantly harder than most other Gargantuars since his laser attack
can take out plants at range. Sure, he’s slower, but his range compensates for that as well as the
fact he always crushes plants twice, so boosting a Wall-Nut won’t stall him nearly as much as it does
for every other Gargantuar. Also, E.M.Peach isn’t introduced yet, so you’re not given him to use.
Fortunately the plants are pretty powerful; you get Laser Beans, Citrons and Snapdragons,
the latter of which can be used on Power Tiles to double its Plant Food effect for a devastating
blow. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t give you Citrons nearly as much as it would ideally,
so you might have to blow your Plant Food on Laser Beans if Robo-Cones are closing in.
Also, you can’t one-shot Gargs with Citron’s plant food like you could back in the glory days.
What also makes things more difficult is the amount of Bot Swarms throughout the level.
6 is Wild West. Oh, if you’re new to the game, BELIEVE ME this was torture back in the old days,
back when it had this tagline. There were no boosting plants back then and they gave a lot
less plant food so the level is a bit less painful now. That being said it’s still a
bit of a slog – first of all, the Spud Mine is replaced by the Chili Bean which sounds great,
but it means you can’t use an instant kill on a Gargantuar; all the Bean can really do is stun
the Gargs with his gas, which is VERY situational. Also, you get a lot of Poncho Zombies, and nearly
all of them have metal grates, so set your Pea Pods up, and Split Peas for the Prospectors.
The easiest way to kill the Gargs is to give a Pea Pod plant food twice, and with two of the damn
things at the end, this vehemently requires you to have enough Plant Food free. Another thing you can
somewhat exploit is the minecarts; putting a plant (preferably a Wall-Nut) on one and continuously
baiting the Garg into smashing it is a great way to stall them. In conclusion, it may have
only reached the midpoint of this list, but once upon a time, this was the hardest one bar NONE.
Number 5 is Big Wave Beach. Like Wild West, this stage has become exponentially easier overtime,
especially in recent times since they buffed the Chomper, to the point you don’t even really need
to use Tangle Kelps – mate, Chompy Boy has those surfers in check. The levelling system
has also improved Bowling Bulb’s role, due to the priority mechanics. If anyone’s actually got him
levelled up to the point where he starts with the orange bulb first, let me know,
because this level sounds borderline effortless that way. But overall, this level is not pleasant.
First of all, while you have TWO instant kills, none are effective on Gargantuars,
and since Banana Launcher wasn’t introduced until the second part of the world,
he doesn’t show up here. Boosting Bowling Bulbs will give you an edge, especially with
his crowd-controlling capabilities, but make sure you have enough Plant Food as
otherwise you’ll have better luck getting a baby to dribble on the fearsome crustacean Gargantuar.
Oh yeah and the requirement of Lily Pads only make this level more aggravating.
Fourth place goes to Dark Ages. Despite only having 20 levels,
they made sure to ramp up the difficulty in this world given both the boss stage and Gargantuar
battle are tough stuff. You get some vigorous zombies, including THESE oxygen-nicking cretins,
yet no plants with infinite range, so Fume-Shroom’s your main tool,
although at low levels, even columns of them will struggle against Knight Zombies. Also, unless
you’re clearing out graves or waiting to get more Fumes, Puff-Shrooms are more of a hindrance
than anything as they provide the Jesters with projectiles to hurl back. Fortunately, plant
food is given at a respectable rate, and Grave Busters also help a lot, in fact they’re pretty
important to reduce the amount of zombies that spawn in Necromancy ambushes. The obvious way to
kill Gargs is to boost a Fume-Shroom and then use a Spud Mine, but it might be hard to find space
to plant the Mines so they arm themselves in time, although the Fume’s Plant Food can get around this
problem. But all in all, get ready to do some heavy stalling, because they’re a dense bunch.
Number 3 is Jurassic Marsh. Now, despite the Gargantuars in this world having increased
toughness, this sounds pretty simplistic given you can charm Velociraptors and have them kick
the Gargs off the map instantly. However, the Gargantuars arguably aren’t even the
biggest threat in their own level; Fossilhead Zombies will take donkeys’ years to defeat,
and then there’s the Jurassic Imps – they’re easier to defeat than most imps,
but since these Imps move faster, they can get to your plants easily and when paired with Raptors,
can make you lose the level very early on if you can’t set up a defence in time. Also,
you might not even get chance to use the charmed Raptor counter for Gargs given other dinosaurs
might be prioritised over Raptors to be charmed, mostly the Pterodactyls given a zombie dragged to
the other side can easily chew away at your defences, and often there’s two dinosaurs
in one lane so it’s smart to charm them both. The other problematic aspect of this level is
the huge packs of zombies; none of the plants are good at crowd control, especially Celery Stalker,
who can take a moderate amount of damage but if numerous zombies are eating him at once when
he’s attacking someone else, then he’s screwed. In fact, the pairing of Primal Peashooter and
Celery Stalker is possibly the worst combination in any Gargantuar level, given the Peashooter
will knock zombies back into eating range of the Stalker, making him utterly counterproductive.
However, both of these specialise at supressing single targets, and the final wave isn’t too
strenuous given two Primal Peas should be able to keep the bulky Garg away indefinitely,
plus you have a chance to get Grapeshots which should deal with the reinforcements,
but apart from this rather mild ending, this level is a complete ballache to play.
Runner-up spot goes to Neon Mixtape Tour. Speaking of battles featuring the Celery Stalker;
I was actually debating whether to put this ahead of Jurassic Marsh or not, though at least that
battle features the Grapeshot and the Gargantuars aren’t too hard in the grand scheme of things.
Same can’t be said here – first of all, this one features the most broken zombie in the
GAME – the one that can take out two plants at once, regardless of how far back the second one
is. It also suffers from mediocre offence since you’re given Kernel Pult and Phat Beet, so like
Pirate Seas, except the Phat Beet’s Plant Food effect looks frail in comparison to Snapdragon’s.
On the other hand, you’ll find much more utility out of the Celery Stalker this time round,
given that it syncs with Kernel much better than it did with Grandpa Pea, and the zombies aren’t
quite packed like sardines like they were in Jurassic Marsh. In fact, the Celery is pretty
much the prerequisite to defeat the Gargs, and if you’re lucky they’ll get stunned by the Pults
at the right time. You’re also given a slowing plant – not a straight-up stunning plant, because
Popcap are evil like that, and no, Kernel-Pult doesn’t count given that’s based on complete luck,
can’t deal with groups unless you boost him (which is probably your best bet)
and there’s no upgrade to increase his butter chance. Oh yeah and you get the jams, too.
This at least means you get situations where the Gargantuar doesn’t get his shockwave,
but then again having your Celeries slapped about by MCs isn’t a whole lot of fun.
And right at the top is Modern Day. Obvious pick here, because it’s literally JUST Gargantuars,
specifically all of the ones at the time of the world’s release – except the Dark Ages one,
he got left out, for some reason. And you get a huge lineup of plants to use. Unlike many of the
battles below it, I think this level is actually fun to play just because it’s complete chaos,
and its RNG aspect is nice too, although it does mean it’s almost impossible to devise
a strategy for it. The biggest irritant of this level is how you initially get powerful plants
but they’re replaced by much worse ones later on – oh great, you get Coconut Cannons and Winter
Melons and Primal Potato Mines! Oh, just kidding, here’s a Phat Beet and a Threepeater, trolololol!
So, in short, once the powerful ones get the sausage, you won’t get to replant them as they
don’t give them out later on in the level, and yes Intensive Carrot can revive them, but you’ll often
have to plant one of the weaker plants in place to stall them, not to mention the Gargantuars still
throw Imps, so these will need to be dealt with too. All I can really suggest for this level is…
pray for explosives, and I cannot stress this enough, PRIORITISE KILLING HAIR METAL
AND PRIME GARGS FIRST, because they can take out your plants at the back,
and also… have coins saved up to use power-ups, good luck completing this without them.
Feel free to flex in the comments if you HAVE managed this, let me know what you
thought of the list, like the video, subscribe if you’re new, I’m GNVS, thanks for watching!