u/HyperSonic1991

I've seen this in a couple of videos and I know this topic has already been argued to hell and back, but I feel the need to talk about this either way.

Why do people cry and complain when Eggman players do little to help the team? His whole kit is designed to help HIMSELF. He is not meant to help the team with the exception of Metal Sonic, and even then he only helps Metal heal faster, something Tails can also do, but not as effectively as Eggman.

Eggman is not meant to distract, nor be a stunner. He's there only to protect himself. Yes, a GOOD Eggman player can at least attempt to help the team with his shield or just generally body block, but it's not a consistent thing you should rely on, as that can depend on the skill level of the Exe.

Even the cheap spots that Eggman can reach with his double jump are, intentionally or not, part of Eggman's whole thing. He's a selfish character who only looks out for himself, and will pull whatever tactics he deems necessary to achieve victory. He's essentially a safe character you can fall back on since his kit is simple and easy to use, perfect for any player to make use of.

If people don't like it when the Eggman is doing nothing to help the team, then they should try playing as Eggman themselves against Kolo or Fleetway, and see how that turns out for them.

So, a bit of an update from this post here. Nothing's changed too drastically, but I have taken advice and started keeping the Sun producers in column 3 rather than column 1, and it's helped a LOT against the levels that are just swarming with Mummified Gargantuars. Even if the Imps break through the Blastberry Vines, they still need a lot of bites to eat one of the Primal Sunflowers, which are much easier to replace compared to the Winter Melons, making Sun usage a lot easier to keep balanced. Besides that, I have also included the Cherry Bomb into the mix as well after getting it in the cards. Cherry Bomb + Teleportato Mine helps a lot with early Sandstorms bringing in tanky zombies, making it easier for my Phat Beets to serve as the initial offense while I'm building up Primal Sunflowers and eventually Winter Melons.

Besides that, I've also made it so I wait until I get 2 columns of Winter Melons down before I plant the Blastberry Vines, as I've found it better to use that Sun to get the Winter Melons down as soon as possible to help against the bulkier zombies and the Gargantuars. With that in mind, I've come to an impasse. I recently got the Imitater as well in the cards, and now I'm debating if I should double up on something with it rather than make use of Blastberry Vine. If I do use Imitater, I'm leaning towards going double Teleportato Mines, as trying to secure the early game is immensely helpful with this strategy. Double Cherry Bomb also just sounds super helpful to have.

This setup is pretty simple, but effective, even against the Mummified Gargantuars. Here's how the setup works.

- At the start of the level, use Plant Food to get extra Sun out of your Sun producer. Use as many Plant Food as there are Flags for the level. (Plant Food is fairly plentiful in the first 19 levels of Endless Zones, but by Level 20, you only get 1 Plant Food per flag, so be sparing with it, and only use Plant Food if you have any on other plants in an emergency).

- Fill the first three columns with your Sun producer as fast as possible. Make use of Phat Beets as your early game offense and to bust any tombstones.

- Primal Wall-Nuts are the preferred defensive plant here for their resilience against Gargantuars and their quick cooldown, making them fairly spammable and thus easy to repair compared to most defensive plants.

- Iceberg Lettuce serves as an early game staller alongside being immensely helpful for putting out the flames from Explorer and Torchlight Zombies. Stallia also helps with slowing down zombies in the early game, but you can also use plants like Chili Bean, Stunion, or Shadow-Shroom to deal with the early game. Note that Stunion and Stallia are the only alternate stallers on this list effective against Gargantuars, Explorer Zombies, and Torchlight Zombies.

- Teleportato Mine fills the role of the insta-plant, being able to nab a few zombies and blow them up for good damage, even against Pyramid-Heads and Mummified Gargantuars. It can even help get Mummy Imps or Sandstorm summoned zombies away from your defenses.

- Blastberry Vine serves as extra damage, especially in the early-to-mid game while you're getting sun for the Winter Melons. It also helps with protecting your Winter Melons from Mummy Imps thrown by the Mummified Gargauntuars, since Phat Beet can't always take the Imps out fast enough.

- Once you have your initial defenses set up, slowly replace the Sun producers in columns 2 and 3 with Winter Melons and Blastberry Vines, and place Blastberry Vines on the Sun producers in column 1 just for a bit of extra damage. Replace any Blastberry Vines destroyed by Mummy Imps and repair your Primal Wall-Nuts once they're close to dying to keep the Mummified Gargantuars at bay.

- There are some alternate plants you can make use of with this strat in mind. If there aren't any Gargantuars in the lineup, you can replace Blastberry Vine with another staller, an insta, Spikeweed, or Iceweed. Iceweed in particular can be very helpful early on to douse Explorer and Torchlight Zombies and in general slow zombies down while racking up damage on them alongside the Phat Beets.

Now, this strategy is very good, but it has its issues, ones that make it a bit of a gamble at times, though these are only issues in the early game... for the most part. The early game can be perilous, especially with early Sandstorms bringing in extremely tanky zombies like the Pyramid-Heads and Pharoah Zombies. Back-to-back or multiple Explorer and Torchlight Zombies can also be an issue, especially if there are graves preventing you from placing down an Iceberg Lettuce to douse their flames. A very glaring issue is that this setup requires a good amount of Sun in the early game to get going, and while this isn't a problem on 3 or 4 flag levels, 1 flag levels mean you don't get much Sun to work with, so you really need to be able to stall, which becomes an issue when factoring in early Sandstorms. It's still doable, but it can be challenging.

All in all, this is a very solid strat. If there's anything that could be done to improve it, let me know. Feel free to also share alternate strats if you got any.