To fight zombies, certain projectiles are fired from plants. Zombies), 'BLOOM & DOOM' being a name that PopCap brainstormed when they were looking for names for Plants vs. On the top of each seed packets, there is a phrase: ' Bloom and Doom Seed Co.' (except in the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSiWare, Android, and iOS version of Plants vs. A Night Roof setting exists, which is where the player fights Dr. Also, the roof is slanted to make the levels harder by making most of the projectiles hit the slanted part of the roof instead of the zombies, so catapult plants are used. On the Roof, plants require Flower Pots to be planted on before planting the actual plant.

Fog levels are a mix of night and pool levels but also have fog in the level, which can be removed temporarily with a Blover or removed with a Plantern or Torchwood until the end of the level or whenever the plant is removed with the shovel or eaten/destroyed by zombies. In Pool levels, plants must be either Aquatic or planted on a Lily Pad to be in the water. During Night, sun does not fall from the sky, so mushrooms are usually used because of their low sun cost. There are many different plants, each with different abilities and special attributes. The purple ones in the bottom row are bought from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.

Planta vs zumbi