Plants vs. Zombies™ Garden Warfare 2: Deluxe Edition: how to unlock Torchwood and Hover Goat-3000 (In-depth guide)

now there are actually three ways to get Torchwood and Hover Goat-3000. From easiest to hardest goes:

The torch and tail upgrade can be bought for 10$. which provides two benefits, one is that if you go through the trials of Gnomus, you will unlock two costumes. one for Torchwood and one for Hover Goat. That from what I’ve heard cannot be obtained in any other way. but I have heard that it was/is possible to get the costumes through Rux if you 100% the sticker collection. I don’t know if it is possible anymore though. and the other benefit is obviously not going through the trials of Gnomus.

Now if you don’t want to pay but also don’t want to jump through all the hoops to get the two classes. you can also mod the game to get them both instantly. I won’t go into the steps for modding. but this YouTube video will show you steps on how to do it. if you want to watch other modding guides, just make sure that the guide is from March 2024 onward due to a patch that very slightly changed how to apply mods. and also, in some tutorials, there is a step to reinstall the game. this is not actually needed.

and the final and hardest way to get Torchwood and Hover Goat-3000 is through the trials of gnomus. which the rest of this guide will be explaining

to unlock the trials of gnomus. the town hall’s doors must be open. the town hall is the structure located in the middle of the backyard battleground
the doors are only open from the first or second Tuesday of each month until 10 days later. and there will be a cutscene when you enter the game, showing you that the doors have opened

once the doors are open, to the right of the building there will be a seagull in a nest. once you talk to it, you can talk to it again to exchange 7 regular stars for 1 rainbow star. regular stars are gotten from the quest board. although getting rainbow stars like this is not very recommended. what you have to do now is interact with the key to get it from the seagull for 25 regular stars. now a key icon will be above your head or to the side of your username in-game.

now you must go to the sewers, and go to the lower area. turn left to see another passage.

go down until you see a cave. then turn to your right and go down the path until you reach the structure (you can alternatively jump off the ledge. It’s safe) to the left of that structure with the gnome statue should be a locked door. use your key to open it. a portal will be behind the door.

since there are four trials. blue, red, yellow, and green. it will take you four months to finish all trials as you can only open one trial per event, and as of the time of writing, there is only one event per month. so be prepared. and to get each key, you must play the mystery portal until you get 50 rainbow stars (the max limit). then, you must open the red 50 rainbow star middle treasure chest in the town hall. which will give you the key to one of four trials:

• Recollection: Blue
• Hot Doom: Red
• Shooty Shooty: Yellow
• Balance: Green

once you get to the end of each trial. there will be an eight-symbol code like the picture below that you must screenshot or take a picture of. Note that the code differs from player to player. so you cannot use my or other people’s codes as they won’t work

this guide will also show you tips on how to complete the trials more easily.

climb the stairs and wait until a bridge constructs itself in front of you (note citron looking at the bridge)

then walk all the way down to this area
the picture below will show you a rough map of which corner leads to which trial
once you get a key. go to the trial with the corresponding color. and use the key on it to open the portal to the trial

for this trial, you must jump onto the plates in front of you in the sequence that is on the arches from left to right.

if you have someone with you, tell them to sit next to you, take a picture, and tell you the sequence from the picture they just took.
if you are alone, only memorize the first letter of each symbol. (courtesy of Wolfyplayz)
I would also recommend using a floaty or nimble character. such as Superbrainz, Rose, or Imp

in this trial, you must make it to the end without touching the plates when they become red

to make this challenge easier, you can use the Bhop method to clear this challenge really fast. or use rocket leap

as any super brainz, use your heroic kick ability without walking or doing any walking inputs. once the kicking animation has ended, hold jump, and let go once you can’t go any higher. then the near-exact moment you touch the ground hold jump again and let go when you can’t go any higher. repeat this until you lose momentum. you can repeat this process with your second heroic kick.

In this trial you must shoot the symbol the gnomes are holding that is also displayed on the arches. the gnomes will turn around making it more difficult for you to hit the target symbols.

use the fastest-firing character you have or the character with the fastest projectiles (such as sunflower, kernel corn, Z-7 imp, or foot soldier) but foot soldier with rocket leap and kernel corn is best

in this trial, you must clear an obstacle course without dying or falling off.

use the Bhop method and Superbrainz’s floatiness to skip large parts of this challenge. alternatively, you can use Foot Soldier’s rocket leap ability to skip large parts of the level

once you finish one or all the trials, you have to go to the portal at the center. and enter the of the codes you have gotten from any of the trials. once you are done, pull the lever.
now if you have entered the code correctly. music will start playing and gnomes corresponding to the color of the trial that you put the code in will spawn. fend the gnomes off until a text saying “THE GUARDIAN HAS APPEARED” shows up and a big gnome spawns. after this, it is best to focus on shooting the big gnome. as all the smaller gnomes will also die once the guardian gnome has died. and a cutscene will show a statue in the statue room being destroyed and a portal appearing in place of it. after this has happened, move on to the other colors until you have done them all. you can do them after each trial or in bulk.

There are also nine pot/bot locations for extra support. Down below is a very rough map of where each one is:

You can stand behind the column with the symbols as a form of cover. As For some reason, normal, shieldy, and explody gnomes will try to attack you from the wall behind the column. but guardian gnomes and shooty gnomes won’t do this.

enter each portal in the statue room. (you can also open the chests below the symbols for extra customization) the portal has the same sequence as one of the trials with the color you have finished, but two symbols are missing. the missing symbols are the ones used in the final code in the exact same spot that is missing. the picture below will explain it better.

once you have entered the final code. gnomes of all four colors will appear and eventually a gnome king will appear. (the gnome king is basically the same as the gnome guardians but stronger and with more attacks) once you defeat the gnome king. a cutscene will show that the central statue explodes and a rainbow portal will be in place of it.

here are the two chests containing Torchwood and Hover Goat-3000. to unlock each one, you will need 75 rainbow stars for each chest and 150 in total, so you will need to make several trips (at least three) to the town hall’s mystery portal. once that’s done, enjoy your new class(es)