Plants vs. Zombies 2How to Get the Most Free Coins in Plants vs. Zombies 2
Plants vs. Zombies 2 gems buy premium plants and upgrade piñatas; coins pay for power-ups and level-ups. Both can be earned for free, but through completely separate routes.
What is the fastest and most efficient way to get Coins in Plants vs. Zombies 2?
Gems arrived with the Far Future world and replaced the old diamonds. They are used to buy gem premium plants, sprouts, upgrade piñatas and costumes, and to speed up the Zen Garden. Coins go somewhere else entirely: power-ups, plant food and, above all, upgrading plants, which can cost more than a hundred thousand coins per plant. Gems are slow and limited; coins pour in if you know which modes to squeeze.
Every day
- 9 gems a day, plus 500 coins for every coin ad
The three daily gem ads
The game lets you watch three ads a day that pay three gems each: a fixed nine gems daily. Separately there are different ads that give coins — 500 per video, and 700 during the Feastivus event — and others that hand over a gauntlet. They are buttons that appear on the map screen and in the store, not always at the same time, so it is worth opening the game a couple of times a day. Nine gems sounds like nothing, but it is sixty-three a week without playing a single level.
- Around 21 gems a day if you close all eight quests
Completing the Travel Log every day
The Travel Log offers short quests with fixed rewards: three gems for winning a Penny's Pursuit level, two for playing a Piñata Party, two for completing five adventure levels, three for clearing a level with a rented plant and one for visiting the Zen Garden. Closing eight quests adds ten more gems. Combined with the ads, a full day comes to around twenty-one gems, and reaches twenty-seven if you put a few hours in back to back.
- 500 coins for every marigold that reaches maturity
Marigolds in the Zen Garden
In Plants vs. Zombies 2 the only Zen Garden plant that produces money is the Marigold, and it gives 500 coins per plant. Watering them is a ten-second job that also closes a Travel Log quest. Filling the garden with marigolds turns daily maintenance into a stable income, and extra pots can be bought with gems if you have any to spare. It is the most boring way to earn coins and also the most reliable, because it does not depend on you winning any level.
- Coins by the handful and gems five or ten at a time
Piñata Parties and mystery gift boxes
Piñata Parties rotate daily and finish with a big piñata that drops coins; the small ones along the way do too. Mystery gift boxes, which appear on the map, can contain coins, gems — usually five or ten — costumes and seed packets. The Treasure Yetis that show up in some levels leave behind lunchboxes full of coins. None of these sources is predictable down to the detail, but all of them fire simply by dropping in and playing the daily content.
Every week
- 4 gems for the first clear on Spicy and Blazing, plus gems in the bonus phase
Penny's Pursuit and its high difficulties
Penny's Pursuit rotates every week with a featured plant. Clearing the levels on the high difficulties for the first time pays four gems, and during the extra prize phase the zombies you defeat also drop gems. Because the mode resets with every rotation, it is a recurring source rather than a one-off payout. It also feeds the Travel Log quests, so the same session pays out twice. If you are short on gems, this is the mode to put your time into.
One time only
- 25 gems for registering the account and 25 more per Epic Quest
Linking an EA account and Epic Quests
Registering an EA account to save your game pays twenty-five gems once, and it also protects your progress if you change phone. The Epic Quests that come with a world expansion give another twenty-five gems per event, and each event runs for about two weeks. There are also gems on specific dates in the daily calendar. These are small amounts, but they arrive exactly when the game rolls out gem premium plants, which usually cost a hundred.
Events only
- Gem or coin bundles based on your placement; tens of thousands of coins in high leagues
The Arena and its seasons
The Arena hands out bundles at the end of each tournament based on your placement, and the prizes are gems or coins; in the high leagues the coin payouts are counted in tens of thousands. Seasons add another layer: accumulating crowns across several tournaments unlocks coins, gems, piñatas and seed packets for the featured plant. Reaching Iron league or above already changes the numbers considerably, and the league bonuses make competing seriously worthwhile.
What does not work
No generator can add Coins to your Plants vs. Zombies 2 account: the balance is handled on the game’s servers and there is no way to touch it from outside. If you arrived looking for one, we explain in detail how they work on the inside and why they always end the same way.
See why Coins generators are a scam →Frequently asked questions
How many gems can you get for free on a normal day?
A full day comes to around twenty-one gems without spending anything: nine from the three daily ads and the rest from Travel Log quests, including the ten for closing eight quests. If you put in several hours and take advantage of first clears on Penny's Pursuit at high difficulties, you can reach twenty-seven. Over a week that is between 150 and 190 gems, enough for a hundred-gem premium plant.
How do you earn coins consistently without replaying levels?
The base is a Zen Garden full of marigolds, which pay 500 coins per mature plant, plus the ads that give 500 coins per video. On top of that come the daily Piñata Parties, the mystery gift boxes and the Treasure Yetis. Once you get into the Arena and start chaining wins, the placement bundles start being counted in tens of thousands and eclipse everything above.
What is worth buying with gems and what is better avoided?
Prioritise gem premium plants, especially the ones only available for a limited time, and upgrade piñatas, which turn weak plants into serious pieces. Avoid spending them on sprouts, costumes and speeding up the Zen Garden: sprouts drop on their own while you play, costumes are purely cosmetic and the garden's wait is solved with patience.
Why does Penny's Pursuit pay better than other modes?
Because it pays through two channels at once. It gives three gems for winning a level via the Travel Log quest, four more the first time you clear the Spicy and Blazing difficulties, and its zombies drop gems during the extra prize phase. Since it rotates every week with a featured plant, those first clears become available over and over again.
