Cynthia finds it creepy.  But I happen to love the singing sunflower companion, quite possibly the best companion we see in World of Warcraft to date.  It sings random lines, musical notes flying up its head.  OK.  It is a little bit spooky.  That child like voice coming out of nowhere.  Randomly, it would sing, “La la la …” or better still, “There’s a zombie in your lawn.”  To obtain this pet, you have to complete a chain of quests (level 20+).  Fans of WoW would call this mini-game “Peacebloom vs. Ghouls”.  But really.  This mini-game draws inspiration from the popular PC game – “Plants vs. Zombies”.  I have not played PvZ.  And if you neither have, fear not.  Here is a near sure win strategy to share.

To get the quest, you should head to Hillsbrad Foothills.  To the east, south of Dalaran Crater, there is a farm.  Brazie the Botanist needs your help to defend his lawn against the zombies (or rather ghouls and various exotic undeads).  The first quest “Basic Botany” is a tutorial.  The zombies only appear in the middle row and you can plant the Spitter to take them down easily.  You need solar energy to plant flowers.  To collect solar energy, right click onto the shinning spheres.  The second quest is “Flower Power”.  You have access to Sunflower.  Sunflower increases the availability of solar energy and for this particular quest whereby zombies will only come in via the middle three rows, three to six Sunflowers should be good enough.  I like to use Freezya too.  It slows down the zombies.  The third quest “Ghouls Hate My Grains” poses some level of challenge.  You have access to Rocknut, which is the best defense you can have.  I prefer to place them on the third column from the right.  That gives me more space to place other types of plants.  I also enjoy using Strangler Vine.  Some players don’t like using it.  What Strangler Vine does is that it grabs a zombie and tosses it up in the air.  The zombie is immortalized up in midair.  And it is attacked by your plants from different rows.  The fourth quest “Someone Setup The Pumpkin Bomb” is likely the hardest of the quest chain.  The Pumpkin Bomb is useful to take down a large group of zombies, especially useful to weaken the strongest mobs.  To sustain its usage, you need two columns of Sunflower.  To make it effective, try not to throw away a bomb too early in the game.  The last quest is “Lawn of the Dead” – the ‘boss’ fight.  I personally think that this last bit is not as insane as the one before.

If you get stuck with this mini-game – I know Cynthia did – you may wish to try the following strategy.  Below is my priority list, applicable to part three to five of the quest chain.

1. Plants three Sunflowers at the back of the lawn, before you do anything else.
2. Plant a Rocknut on the row where the first zombie appears (and soon another one will appear).  This should buy you some time.
3. Plant a Spitter on the row where the second zombie appears.
4. Plant a Spitter on the row where the first zombie appears.  If your Rocknut breaks too soon, plant a Freezya to slow them down.
5. Focus on planting two columns of Sunflowers, wherever you can.
6. Plant a Rocknut whenever the cool down expires.  I place them on the third column from the right.  Replace the lost ones immediately.  A strong line of defense makes your game lasts.
7. Drop a Pumpkin Bomb if situation calls for.
8. Plant Strangle Vines behind a Rocknut if you can.  These are good front line offence.