This will include some rare, harmful, funny, weird, strange or useful glitches that may occasionally occur in Plants vs. Zombies.
All versions
Pole Vaulting Zombie glitch
If a Pole Vaulting Zombie jumps over a plant with a Tall-nut behind it, it will crash into the Tall-nut and start eating it, despite the Tall-nut being behind the zombie. This occurs mostly when there is a ladder on the Tall-nut, the Pole Vaulting Zombie will climb over the ladder, try to jump over the next plant, but crash into the Tall-nut and have to go over the ladder again.
Jalapeno Zombie glitch
Proof of the floating glitch
This rarely happens, but this is how it works. If the Jalapeno Zombie is in the pool, and he explodes, he will only remove any Lily Pads or other aquatic plants; however, he will not destroy any plants that were planted on top of the Lily Pads.
Avoid Squash Zombies glitch
First, wait until a Squash Zombie is about at the middle of a square. Then, plant any type of plant (except for a Spikeweed or Spikerock) right in front of him. The head will jump, but he will miss the plant, equaling the Squash Zombie's suicide. This can be useful to protect other plants.
Whack a Zombie glitch
If one plants Grave Busters before any zombies come out on the final wave, no money bag appears and the player cannot complete the level. This glitch makes it impossible to win the mini-game without hacking. This does not occur in the GOTY PC version.
Zombiquarium glitch
Sometimes, in Zombiquarium, Snorkel Zombies will not get hungry as often, or not at all. This makes it possible to win the game without buying a brain.
Ladder Zombie's arm glitch
Occasionally, Ladder Zombie's arm should fall off, but does not. He still shows the bone, and the arm. This gives the look as if the bone is sticking out of the arm.
Dolphin Rider Zombie glitch
When a plant is in the first space of the pool, and the Dolphin Rider Zombie appears, the Dolphin Rider Zombie will jump over this plant and will be eating the step in front of the Player's House.
Floating ladder glitch
Proof of the floating ladder glitch
If a ladder is on a plant and a Bungee Zombie steals it, the ladder will temporary be floating before disappearing.
Old PC version
Old data glitch
If one shuts down the computer when the game is still open, the game will remove your data and the player must start all over again. If one's progress is at Adventure Mode in Day or Night, there will be dirt instead of grass on two lanes and plants will stay if the player planted it before you created it. The only way to get rid of this is to restart, but if the player has tried and it did not work, he or she must delete and then restore the data. Therefore, closing before shutting down is recommended, but this does not save you if your computer hangs or crashes and forces you to reset.
Split Pea glitch
When there are zombies in front and at the back of a Split Pea, it will shoot two peas at both directions making it a Split Repeater.
Game of the Year Version
Trophy again glitch
If one completes a mini-game, saves process, exits, then re-enters the level, the trophy will show up again and again, without changing its value of $1000. It is useful for getting money fast.
Delayed laugh glitch
If one clicks "Adventure Mode" on the menu screen and holds down the mouse button, the music will play but the laugh will not and the game will not start until one lets go.
My box didn't explode
Sometimes, a Jack-in-the-Box Zombie will explode, but the animation will not be shown.
iOS versions
A glitch where plants do not appear in Whack a Zombie
Invisible Sun-shroom glitch
First, plant a Sun-shroom. Then click home (maybe wait a while) and go back in. It should have that Newspaper Zombie pause screen and rarely, it may not have the Sun-shroom on the screen, but the player still sees its shadow and it still produces sun. The shadow also grows bigger when it produces normal sun.
Whack a Zombie in Level 2-4
Occasionally, if you finish Level 2-4 in the iPad version, when you get the item then go back to the Main Menu, then go back, it will be Whack a Zombie with the plants the player had, thus making it extremely easy.
Free Puzzle game packs
Purchasing a Puzzle game pack in the Puzzle menu and switching to a different tab before the new levels appear will cause the game pack of the selected tab to temporarily unlock. For example, purchasing the I, Zombie game pack and switching to the Last Stand tab will cause the Last Stand game pack to unlock temporarily. The pack will re-lock when the player leaves the tab, or when one of the levels is played.
Invisible Zombie Glitch
Occasionally, on Level 2-4, if one exits out, waits a bit, and then goes back in, a zombie will be invisible.
Blinking Animation Glitch
If one pauses the game (or the game pauses itself to show zombies for the next wave on a Survival or Last Stand mode) there is a chance he or she will see both open and blinking eyes on a Peashooter, Repeater or Sunflower.
Text Glitch
There are two variants of the glitch:
- When the game is loading instead of saying "LOADING...." it says missing and it will never load.
- When playing on iOS 9, almost all text in the game says missing. This also causes lag in the game. This does not happen in Plants vs. Zombies FREE.
Minor glitches
iPhone only
- Sometimes on Wall-nut Bowling on iPod, Football Zombies will appear. They take four hits and move faster.
- Spikerocks sometimes are shown with no large spikes after being damaged.
- Giga-gargantuars in Last Stand Endless will appear the same as regular Gargantuars, with no red eyes.
- Rarely, the iPhone can freeze if you press the pause button, requiring a hard reboot.
iPad Only
- The Zen Garden does not support multi-touch.
- The Dancing Zombie and Backup Dancer's graphics are very buggy.
- When the Dancing Zombie loses his arm, the entire arm disappears, including the top part. He also leaves no rip or tear in the shirt, as if he did not even have an arm hole.
- When the Backup Dancer loses its arm, there is no bone showing.
- The graphics in the Zen Garden were very buggy.
- The Watering Can switches colors after being given to a plant (e.g. green becomes golden, golden becomes green). The color change does not affect its range, so the Golden Watering Can still waters up to four plants.
- The fertilizer bag immediately disappears after the bag is opened, so the powder appears out of nowhere.
- The Bug Spray has the fertilizer animation playing behind it.
- Stinky the Snail's animations are completely messed up. Its body is arranged strangely, and he has an accurately arranged duplicate next to him.
- The phonograph also looks weird.
- The chocolate sometimes says x-1.
- However, all of these bugs were fixed the in 1.9.10 update.
- The game loads slower in the latest update.
- The petals on a Marigold Sprout are replaced with Stinky's eyes and regular Sprouts are shorter.
- In the latest update, when leaving a level the game says it will be "saved"; however, it will not when one returns to the level. It will instead just restart from the beginning. This will "prevent" the player from playing any Endless levels; unless they want to keep playing it for an extended amount of time until they get tired, bored, or lose.
- The game will crash while playing Portal Combat when the first portal is relocating.
Both
Beghouled glitch
- Playing Beghouled and checking the Suburban Almanac will change the prices shown on the seed packets.
DS version
Digger Zombie glitch
In Three Hit Wonder, make the Digger Zombie lose his pickaxe on a row with a Potato Mine. When he gets to the Potato Mine, he will start eating it, despite being armed. It will never be eaten, and other Digger Zombies that lose their pickaxe will start eating it, though other zombies will set it off (as well as a Digger Zombie with his pickaxe).
Lost arm glitch
When a zombie gets killed by the Garden Rake, his left arm will disappear without falling off.
Progress bar flag glitch
On Last Stand and any Survival level, when a new level is started, the flag(s) raised during the first wave will not go back down.
Bungee Zombies glitch
A very rare glitch during Zombie Trap may occur where every row will have 3-4 Bungee Zombies. This can allow the player to catch 24 zombies at a time.
Android version
Imitater glitch
In the seed selection screen, if one taps on the Imitater, scrolls down, holds, and taps fast on the bottom of the Imitater seed selection tray, he or she can imitate upgrade plants such as the Cattail without hacking and even the Explode-o-nut and Giant Wall-nut. This is a strange and very useful glitch. Also Imitated upgrade plants' cost will not increase in Survival: Endless.
Squashed Repeater glitch
In Vasebreaker Endless, if one places a left-facing Repeater under a Gargantuar, and he smashes it, it will turn into a squashed Pole Vaulting Zombie.
Last Stand Glitch
When one does Last Stand: Day, do the first flag. When it almost shows the zombies, tap the Repeater seed packet but don't place it. When the screen stops the animations of the plants, place the Repeater anywhere. Now the Repeater was placed with a random animation!