CHANGELOG

Changelog 0.17r

Every change, accounted for. Open the changelog and trace every step the voyage has taken.

0.17rOct 1, 2026playable

build 20261006T172110111Z-ed939622cf7d-dirty

Developer note

Foreword

Happy National Day! It has been a while since the last update, but development has kept moving—and this release has plenty to show for it.

Recently we began releasing test builds in “BetaRelease” mode before some important artwork, music, and animations were finished. The boss animation is now complete, so it is time for an update.

Change list

Primary changes

This update completes the Sands of Time finale, adds Sandbox, Plant Retreat, Survival, I, Zombie, and manual Sunflower matching, and rebalances plants, zombies, and Majorist.

Levels

New Level: Edge of Sands of Time

The final level of the Sands of Time chapter brings the party into conflict with a local resident over the Time Apple Clock.
The next area's map appears at the end of the level, but it is still unfinished and currently shown as a sketch.

Note

Sandbox

Snowbloom Palace now has a sandbox where you can freely place plants, zombies, and field objects, and use items to try out ideas.

Note

Plant Retreat

After advancing the story, return to Snowbloom Palace to unlock the Plant Retreat.
The Plant Retreat is a place to rest during the voyage, with activities to explore.
Some of its artwork and supporting features are unfinished and will arrive in later versions.

Note

Survival Mode

The Plant Retreat has a PlantS5 game console where you can play Survival Mode.
Survival Mode can currently crash in certain circumstances. The cause is still unknown; the team plans to fix it in a later release and welcomes bug reports.

Note

I, Zombie

The Edge of Sands of Time extra mode is I, Zombie. Complete it to buy the I, Zombie cartridge from BISHOP, then play more I, Zombie stages and I, Zombie Endless at the Plant Retreat. The cartridge can even pay for itself.

Note

Chain Reaction

After completing the Chain Reaction story level, you can buy its cartridge and play more challenging Chain Reaction stages at the Plant Retreat. Chain Reaction Endless has moved from the original level to the Plant Retreat cartridge.

Levels

Trial

Added the Hygro Plantago Trial.

Note

Manual Sunflower Matching

Many players said they were uncomfortable with automatic Sunflower matching. Removing matches altogether would make the game much harder, so this update adds another way to play.
Turn off “Auto Combo” in Settings to stop Sunflowers matching automatically. Double-click a Sunflower in a matching line to trigger the match yourself.
Manual matching gives you more control over the timing and center of a match. Levels will never require a particular option, so players who prefer automatic matching can keep it on. Especially difficult self-imposed challenges may still favor one setting over the other.

Note

Hygro Plantago

Buff: Significantly increased the timing tolerance when two Hygro Plantagos absorb the same liquid at once, so the action no longer depends heavily on Time Stop.

Note

Alloysuckle

Buff: Gold-state Alloysuckle targets fast enemies more accurately and no longer fires behind itself.

Note

Conehead Zombie

Nerf: Conehead Zombie's HP now matches its diary entry: 720 → 520.
Adjustment: Its default cost in I, Zombie is now 75 (some levels still cost 100).

Note

Firefly Zombie

Buff: The firefly release animation is slightly faster.
Nerf: The interval between releases is longer; together with the faster animation, releases are slightly more frequent overall.
- A new release animation is planned; the current presentation needs improvement.

Note

Firefly

Buff: Flight speed increased from 0.4 to 1.0.
Buff: When a frozen target moves or is forcibly moved, its Firefly follows unless the target moves too fast.
Nerf: Hitting a target that cannot be frozen, or having a target's freeze removed, stuns the Firefly for 5 seconds. Freezing the Firefly itself can also cause this.
Nerf: If the Firefly dies, freezes, or loses contact with its target, the freeze quickly ends but the slow persists for 10 seconds.
Nerf: After acquiring a target, the Firefly stays attached, where plants can hit it more easily.
Nerf: A Firefly freezing Opti-caltrop is slowly burned by its light; the burn rate decreases as difficulty increases.
Adjustment: Fireflies now choose targets dynamically during flight.
Adjustment: Given multiple Opti-caltrop targets, a Firefly now chooses the nearest rather than the one with the lowest ID.
- A new Firefly animation is planned; the current one lacks clarity and can be hard to see in some scenes.

Note

Archer Zombie

Nerf: Outside Unbalanced difficulty, Flag Zombies are slightly less likely to appear; the Silver Chariot Easter egg is also slightly less likely.
- Regular zombie weight: 4 → 5.
- Flag Zombie weights: 0/1/2/3/4 → 0/1/2/3/5.
- Silver Chariot Easter egg weight: 2.

Note

Witch Zombie

Nerf: Greatly reduced the area of freeze and damage potions.
Nerf: Slightly reduced the area of speed and healing potions.
Buff: Potion damage increased from 400 to 800.
Buff: Witch Zombie no longer repeatedly throws freeze potions at enemies immune to freezing.
Adjustment: Witch Zombie no longer always reapplies freeze after its target is unfrozen.
Adjustment: Improved particles and sounds now make potion areas easier to read.
Adjustment: Potion launch position and trajectory are more natural, and airtime is slightly longer.
Ghastasaucey's note:
The old Witch Zombie could break formations too easily; the huge potion area made a few breaks particularly frustrating.
The old throwing behavior also needed improvement.

Note

Wheel Zombie

Buff: A reversed Wheel Zombie can now push its wheel normally.
Buff: Increased the range at which Wheel Zombie decides to push, so it no longer ignores its wheel in situations where it should use it.
Nerf: Wall-nut-type plants have slightly greater resistance to the perpetual wheel.
Adjustment: The push timing now matches the animation more closely.

Note

Lantern Imp

Nerf: In daytime, Lantern Imp's forced landing point at the far left has moved right to the lawn mower position.

Note

Pine Zombie

Nerf: A frozen Pine Zombie no longer retreats when damaged.
Nerf: While curled up, it is no longer immune to knockback and freezing.
Buff: At night, it chooses a better trajectory for thrown pinecones.
Adjustment: Its behavior in I, Zombie is more consistent, making it easier to use.
Adjustment: It can no longer be frozen mid-jump.

Note

Fisherman Gargantuar

Buff: In Sands of Time, Fisherman Gargantuar may hook a Time Apple Clock to force a time-space switch when one is present, except in certain special cases.
Nerf: A charmed Magnet Truck Zombie can now crush Fisherman Gargantuar's shell.

Note

Majorist

Buff: Question 1 threshold (sun spent): 500 → 300/250/200/150/100.
Buff: Question 2 threshold (plant count): 4 → 3/3/2/2/1.
Buff: Question 3 threshold (remaining sun): 300 → 125/100/75/50/25.
Buff: First wrong answer: burns at most 1/2/3/4/5 plants → at most 2/3/4/5/6 plants.
Buff: Second wrong answer: burns one row → two rows (one on EASY).
Buff: Portal interval: 1000 − 200 × phase − 20 × difficulty → 700 − 200 × phase − 40 × difficulty − a random value from −50 to 50.
Ghastasaucey's note:
Majorist had been easier than Hurriclover, with too little zombie pressure and conditions that were too lenient.
These changes strengthen Majorist to suit its role as the Mysterious Swamp boss.

Polish

Detail Improvements

Improved the layout of all zombie cards.
Moved two Bishop tiles in the second column on Snowbloom Palace's second floor.
Made the stars in the Sands of Time sky easier to tap for achievements, especially on touch devices.
Smoothed transitions in the tutorial's upper-left sun display.
Improved the “A huge wave” subtitle, especially for languages other than Chinese.
Reworked CocoBottle Shine's animation to make it more lively.
Updated the art when an Emergency Sun Bottle breaks and made the Easter egg's behavior more consistent.
Improved the seed selection interface.
- Selected seed packets that are partly outside the selection area now move more naturally.
- Returning packets from slots to the selection area now uses a new movement pattern.
Overhauled projectile behavior to improve handling along the Z axis.
- Plants raised by ThePond no longer incorrectly hit zombies in other rows.
- A plant raised by ThePond while attacking can now hit airborne Lantern Imps.
- Pole Vaulting Zombies and Archer Zombies lifted by knockback or other effects no longer incorrectly hit plants in the row above.
- Improved cross-row thrown projectiles, including bucket-carrying Pottery and Gatling Pea.
- Used Emergency Sun Bottles now fly in an arc instead of straight ahead.
- Silver-state Alloysuckle's shots now stay near the ground, in line with their behavior.
- Magnet Truck Zombie now attracts thrown projectiles more naturally, taking their height into account.
- In Mechanical Snowfield, a Power Peony planted between rows can hit zombies in both rows with a large projectile.
Projectiles thrown by Magnet-shroom now spin.
Replaced the sound effects for Witch Zombie's potion bottle, CocoBottle Shine, an Emergency Sun Bottle landing, and the Waterfall Barrel.

Polish

Localization

Updated localized images and strings across languages, along with related interface details.

Fix log

Bug Fixes

Nine fixes cover seed selection, Lantern Imp, Wheel Zombie, The Pond, Wiremoss, the Majorist cursor, world-map interaction, and time-space section labels.

01
GHTR-000000DADragging a seed packet in the selection screen could preview the wrong card.
02
GHTR-000000DBUsing Last Selection in a particular order could leave seed packets in an abnormal state.
03
GHTR-000000DCAfter landing and dropping its lantern, Lantern Imp could sometimes still have the lantern attracted by Magnet-shroom.
04
GHTR-000000DDWheel Zombie could finish pushing its wheel after changing lanes while holding it.
05
GHTR-000000DEThePond did not interact correctly in Chain Reaction levels.
06
GHTR-000000DFWiremoss appeared on the wrong layer in Snowbloom Palace.
07
GHTR-000000E0The cursor flickered when selecting an option in the Majorist fight.
08
GHTR-000000E1A teleporting cursor, common on touch devices, could trigger a window-storage bug on the world map.
09
GHTR-000000E2“Journey of Time and Space” did not show the correct section.