The primary zombies returning from the first game are the Basic, Conehead, Buckethead, and Flag Zombies, along with the Imps and Gargantuars, though they are renamed and visually adapted for each world, but usually behave the same way for the most part.
Alongside them are Snorkel, Newspaper, Balloon, and Football (Under his new name as All-Star) who also came back from the first game to be in specific worlds, while Catapult, Ducky Tube (and it's variants), Zomboni and the Bobsled Team made it into special events. Meanwhile Digger, Jack-In-The-Box, Bungee and the original Zombot made it into the Chinese version.
Unlike the first game, the other zombies found in each world are only encountered in that world alone, apart from the daily Pinata Party levels and Modern Day.
open/close all folders
Adventure Mode
Ancient Egypt
- Ancient Egypt: Obviously, this is the setting of this world, however the Explorer Zombies are from a more modern time.
- Dungeon Bypass: The Sandstorms can blow zombies past your plants.
- Mummy: Naturally, all of these zombies (except for the Explorer Zombie) are also undead mummies, although the Almanac claims that they're just wrapped in toilet paper.
Ra Zombie
- Bandit Mook: They can steal any Sun lying around, forcing you to kill them to get it back.
- Light Is Not Good: Despite being based on the sun and having sun-based powers, he's still one of the bad guys.
- Meaningful Name: Though according to the Almanac this is subverted, as it claims that he's not named after the Egyptian solar deity Ra, but simply because he says "ra" a lot.
- The Power of the Sun: He uses his ability to control sunlight to steal your Sun resources.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Part of his sclerae (which are parts of the eye) become red when he's stealing sun. He also wants to kill the Player Character.
Camel Zombie
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Their camel signs protect them from damage.
Explorer Zombie
- Adventurer Archaeologist: He wouldn't look so out of place, if he were among the zombies from the later Lost City world.
- Anachronism Stew: While the other zombies look like ancient mummies, he seems to be a more modern explorer from the late 19th or early 20th century, though this could be justified, as Dr. Zomboss is using time travel to bring zombies across different time periods.
- One-Hit Kill: His torch can instantly destroy any plant that isn't low-lying.
- Playing with Fire: He uses his torch as a deadly weapon.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Ice-based plants will put out his torch.
Tomb Raiser Zombie
- Deployable Cover: His tombstones have this effect against straight-firing plants.
- Punny Name: The Tomb Raiser zombie's name is a pretty obvious Shout-Out to Tomb Raider.
- Support Party Member: He creates tombstones with high health, effectively giving the other zombies a form of Deployable Cover.
Pharaoh Zombie
- Aristocrats Are Evil: A royal undead mummy that starts off encased in a sarcophagus (with Crazy Dave's face on it, for some reason).
- Heavily Armored Mook: His coffin makes him even tougher than a Buckethead Zombie. Most One-Hit Kill plants will break the sarcophagus, but leave the zombie intact. Including the Electric Blueberry, which then immediately zaps him again to finish him off.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: He's based on a mummified pharaoh in a sarcophagus, and is a rather resilient enemy.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: After his sarcophagus is broken, he becomes much faster.
- Turns Red: As mentioned above.
Zombot Sphinx-inator
- Cyber Cyclops: The first of four.
- Deployable Cover: His missiles explode into Tomb Raiser bones that spawn tombs.
- Mini-Mecha: Smaller than the first game's Zombot, but still deadly.
- One-Hit Kill: The missile attack, as well as the charging attack.
- Spider Tank: Has spider-like legs, which it uses to jump and move around.
Pyramid Head Zombie
- Heavily Armored Mook: He is even more durable than a Knight Zombie and also does not have a weakness to the Magnet-Shroom.
- Improvised Armor: An miniature pyramid block on his head makes him even more durable than a Buckethead.
- Super-Toughness: His pyramid gives him phenomenal protection. To wit, he only has 5 less health than a Robo-Cone.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds. The Chili Bean and other explosive plants will defeat him quickly.
Torchlight Zombie
- Adventurer Archaeologist: He wouldn't look so out of place if he were among the zombies from the later Lost City world.
- Anachronism Stew: Like the Explorer zombie, he's also a modern explorer in Ancient Egypt.
- Lightning Bruiser: Even faster than the Explorer Zombie, and has almost twice the health. And he still instantly burns plants in one hit too.
- Man on Fire: Unlike the Explorer Zombie, his clothes are on fire too.
- One-Hit Kill: His torch can instantly destroy any plant that isn't low-lying.
- Playing with Fire: He uses his torch as a deadly weapon. His body is also on fire too!
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Ice-based plants will put out his torch and flames.
- Ungerground Monkey: He's basically Explorer Zombie, but faster, stronger, and also on fire.
Pirate Seas
- Gangplank Galleon: All levels in this world take place on two ships in the middle of the sea. The ship in the left is the player's house/"lawn", while the ship on the right is the pirate ship that belongs to the zombies, who cross over to the player's lawn using planks bridging the two ships.
- Ghost Pirate: They're more like Zombie Pirates, but you already know that.
- Shamu Fu: Gargantuar Pirates use sharks to crush plants.
Swashbuckler Zombie
"He swashes. He buckles. But, he also writes home every third Sunday and sends brains and treasure via post. He's a good zombie at heart."
These zombies swing from ropes to land on any lane not connected by a plank.
- Airborne Mook: He counts as this while still swinging and before landing.
- Dungeon Bypass: He will land on the fifth column from the end.
- Epic Fail: Depending on the level, Swashbucklers will sometimes miss the platform and send themselves straight into a watery grave.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: As still-swinging Swashbucklers are airborne enemies, Kernel-pult's butter and Blover will instantly kill them.
Seagull Zombie
A zombie tied to a seagull, flying over your ship.- Airborne Mook: Obviously. It flies over plankless lanes without any hassle.
- Rule of Funny: How else does a tiny seagull carry a human-sized zombie? The Travel Log comment for their Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest even lampshades it:Travel Log: How can a seagull that small carry a zombie? It's ridiculous!
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: As they are airborne enemies, Kernel-pult's butter and Blover will instantly kill them.
Barrel Roller Zombie
- Improvised Armour: The barrel he's pushing can absorb a hefty amount of shots.
- Mook Maker: Once his barrel bursts open, it spawns two Imps on the lanes above and below him.
- One-Hit Kill: His barrel appears to flatten most plants instantly, but actually deals damage over time at a very quick rate.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Spikeweed and Spikerocks will destroy the barrel, but not the Imps inside. Lobbed-shot plants will hit him over the barrel, while penetrating plants will hit him through the barrel. If he's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, he won't be able to push his barrel.
Imp Cannon
"The Imps joined the Order of the Cannon Fraternity, Kappa Pea, and quickly rose through the ranks due to constant firing of their leadership."
A cannon that continuously fires Imp Pirates.- Action Bomb: After firing a certain amount of Imps, it explodes and rains Imps down all over the lawn.
- Mook Maker: The cannon will produce a good amount of Imps until destroyed or until it self-destructs.
Pirate Captain Zombie (and Zombie Parrot)
- Airborne Mook: The Zombie Parrot can fly over the plankless rows.
- Attack Animal: Unlike other animal zombies (who charge forward in a Zerg Rush or carry zombies), the Parrot is sent out by his Captain to steal your plants, and returns back to him if successful or if the plant is dug up.
- Bandit Mook: The Zombie Parrot can outright steal one of your plants if not killed quickly, much like the Bungee Zombies from the first game.
- Feathered Fiend: The parrot is a huge threat to your plants despite being a small bird.
- Head Pet: Rather than taking a Parrot Pet Position, the Zombie Parrot resides within the captain's hat instead.=
- Lightning Bruiser: The Zombie Parrot has very good health for a Flighty speed zombie (the others die in 1-2 hits), and its "attack" is a One-Hit Kill.
- One-Hit Kill: Any plant abducted by the Zombie Parrot is immediately lost.
- Pirate Parrot: The Zombie Parrot that belongs to him is a pretty good example.
- Raising the Steaks: The parrot is also a zombie.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: As Zombie Parrots are airborne enemies, Kernel-pult's butter and Blover will instantly kill them. If the Zombie Parrot tries to abduct a Chard Guard with leaves on it, the Chard Guard will bend down and the Parrot will immediately retreat (since it cannot target low-lying plants).
Barrelhead Zombie
- Heavily Armored Mook: He is even more durable than a Knight Zombie and also does not have a weakness to the Magnet-Shroom.
- Improvised Armor: A broken barrel on his head makes him even more durable than a Buckethead.
- Super-Toughness: His barrel gives him phenomenal protection. To wit, he only has 5 less health than a Robo-Cone.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Pelican Zombie
- Airborne Mook: Flies over plankless lanes.
- Fragile Speedster: Even faster than a Seagull Zombie, but he's only as durable as one.
- Rule of Funny: Even though the pelican is bigger than the seagull, it's still pretty implausible for it to carry a Zombie.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: As they are airborne enemies, Kernel-pult's butter and Blover will instantly kill them.
Zombot Plank Walker
The boss of the Pirate Seas, it has the ability to fire a shower of Imps, charge forward to destroy 2 lanes of plants, and summon Pirate Seas zombies.
- Cyber Cyclops: The second of four.
- Mini-Mecha: Smaller than the first game's Zombot, but still deadly.
- Mook Maker: Instead of missiles, it will fire a bunch of Imps out of a cannon in its eye, just like the Imp Cannon when it explodes.
- Spider Tank: Has spider-like legs, which it uses to jump and move around.
- One-Hit Kill: His charging attack.
- Promoted to Playable: In Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes, it became a Legendary playable unit on the Zombies' side.
- Talk Like a Pirate: The Almanac description for Zomboss when he's riding it.
Wild West
- Minecart Madness: There are minecart tracks around the area, allowing the player to move them (and any plants on top) around.
- Weird West: It's The Wild West, but WITH ZOMBIES!
Prospector Zombie
- "There once was a zombie who got old, spending all his days looking for gold. 'Til one day in the rain, he finally ate the brains… and, wait, where's his other shoe?"
A zombie with a lit stick of dynamite on his leg, that allows him to Rocket Jump to the far left of the lane, and then eat your defenses from behind.
- Dungeon Bypass: When he uses his Rocket Jump, he gets all the way to your back row.
- Expy: He functions much like the Digger Zombie from the original game, apart from the method used to bypass your defenses. Both also move back to the start afterwards, threatening to dismantle your defenses from behind.
- Mook Chivalry: Like the Digger Zombie before him, he just opts to eat your plants from behind, instead of gunning straight for your house.
- Noodle Incident: How did the Prospector lose his shoe?
- Prospector: Based on a wild west Gold Prospector, and even sports the stereotypical look of wearing a work garb and having a grey beard. He carries a stick of dynamite that's normally used in gold mining, but uses this creatively to get past your defenses.
- Rocket Jump: He uses dynamite to leap over your plants and reach your back lanes. Thankfully, ice can put out the dynamite on his foot.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Ice-based plants put out his dynamite, while Blover blows him away when he's in the air. Plants that can attack backwards (like Split Pea) can also thwart him.
Pianist Zombie
- Pianist Zombie only knows two songs, and they're both groaners.
A saloon pianist who pushes his piano into the lawn while playing music, crushing plants in his way, as well as causing the Cowboy Zombies to dance and periodically change lanes.
- Background Music Override: The Pianist Zombies replaces the background music with saloon music when at least one is on screen and isn't stunned, causing all Cowboy Zombies to dance and switch lanes.
- Improbable Weapon User: His "weapon" is a piano which he uses to run over your plants with.
- Mighty Glacier: Has one of the slowest speeds in the game, but it kills plants extremely quickly and can also absorb a ton of damage.
- Mook Commander: With his music, he "commands" all the cowboy zombies dance around and causes them to switch lanes.
- One-Hit Kill: The Pianist Zombie's piano appears to instantly kill most plants, however it actually deals extremely rapid damage over time. It however, is instantly killed by Spikeweed and Spikerocks in turn.
- The Piano Player: He's based on a wild western saloon piano player.
- Source Music: Whenever one is on the field, it will change the background music to a catchy salon piece which causes all the Cowboy Zombies on screen to dance and switch lanes every now and then. Killing all pianists on the screen reverts the music to normal and also stops the zombies from dancing.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Spikeweed and Spikerocks destroy it in one hit.
Poncho Zombie
- The grate is his most prized possession. The poncho is there just to protect it from getting rusty. Also, he's looking for his mechanical horse.
A zombie wearing a poncho, which may or may not have a protective metal grate under it.
- Clint Squint: Parodied. He's only doing it halfway.
- The Expy With No Name: He resembles The Man With No Name. The references don't just stop there, as he may even wear a metal grate hanging from his neck to protect him from damage, just like in A Fistful of Dollars.
- Heavily Armored Mook: If he is indeed wearing a metal grate under that poncho.
- Luck-Based Mission: He may or may not have a grate under his poncho. If he doesn't, he's easily beaten, but if he does, he's as tough as a Buckethead.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Once his metal grate is exposed, the Magnet-Shroom can steal it, greatly reducing his durability.
Chicken Wrangler Zombie (and Zombie Chickens)
- Crazy Cat Lady: The Chicken Wrangler straps about a dozen chickens on his body, which would suggest that he's got a hoarding problem. Also, see Uncatty Resemblance below.
- Feathered Fiend: Despite being small birds, the Zombie Chickens are still zombies that are out for your brains and attack en masse to reach them.
- Fragile Speedster: Zombie Chickens take one hit from anything to die, but they are the fastest enemy in the game, and also appear in large numbers.
- Mook Maker: The Chicken Wrangler will release a Zerg Rush of Zombie Chickens if he encounters a plant, or if he takes a bit of damage.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Zombie Chickens have such low health, that even Chain Lightning from a Lightning Reed (0.25 normal damage shots) is enough to kill them. They make up for it by Zerg Rushing the player.
- Raising the Steaks: The chickens are also zombies.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Lightning Reed's Chain Lightning destroys hordes of Zombie Chickens, and they also die easily once they run over Spikeweed. If Chicken Wrangler is stunned and killed, he won't release his chickens. If he's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, he won't release any chickens when damaged.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Chicken Wrangler's hairstyle resembles his chickens' combs, and he also moves and acts like a chicken.
- Zerg Rush: The Zombie Chickens. When a Chicken Wrangler is damaged enough, he releases 13 of these to attack your plants. A Chicken can cross a row in seconds, but a single pea is more than enough to kill it.
Zombie Bull (and Bull Rider Imp)
- Animal Mecha: The Zombie Bull is actually a robot.
- Dungeon Bypass: Zombie Bull will attempt to throw the Bull Rider a few spaces towards your lawn, right over your plants.
- Raising the Steaks: Subverted with the Zombie Bull, as he is actually a robot, and thus is really neither a zombie nor even a bull to begin with.
- Robotic Reveal: When Zombie Bull degrades, he begins to show his mechanical endoskeleton underneath.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Zombie Bull can't throw his Rider over Tall-nut. Also, since the bull is a robot, it can be disabled by the E.M.Peach. If it's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, it will lose its Imp.
Carthead Zombie
- Heavily Armored Mook: He is even more durable than a Knight Zombie and also does not have a weakness to the Magnet-Shroom.
- Improvised Armor: A minecart on his head makes him even more durable than a Buckethead.
- Super-Toughness: His barrel gives him phenomenal protection. To wit, he only has 5 less health than a Robo-Cone.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Rodeo Legend Zombie (and Bull Rider Imp)
- Animal Mecha: Like the Zombie Bull, the Rodeo Legend is actually a robot.
- Dungeon Bypass: Rodeo Legend will attempt to throw the Bull Rider a few spaces towards your lawn, right over your plants.
- Fish Eyes: Averted. It has focused pupils to show that it is much more dangerous than the Zombie Bull.
- Horn Attack: Destroys your plants by ramming into them with its horns, which are noticeably larger than Zombie Bull's.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: He's a black-coloured Zombie Bull with larger horns and angry expression, and is a direct upgrade to his lesser variant.
- Lightning Bruiser: It charges at a VERY fast speed, deals mighty damage when it charges into a plant, and has a ton of health like Zombie Bull. And unlike Zombie Bull, it can do its charge again even after the rider is thrown!
- Raising the Steaks: Subverted, as he is actually a robot, and thus is really neither a zombie nor even a bull to begin with.
- One-Hit Kill: Unlike Zombie Bull, the Rodeo Legend will also smash any plant it encounters for hefty damage, destroying most non-defensive plants in one attack.
- Robotic Reveal: When Rodeo Legend degrades, he begins to show his mechanical endoskeleton underneath.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Like Zombie Bull, he can't throw his Rider over Tall-nut, but he can easily pile on the damage on Tall-Nut. Also, since the it's a robot too, it can be disabled by the E.M.Peach. If it's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, it will lose its Imp.
- Use Your Head: Unlike Zombie Bull, it will also destroy the plant that it head-charges into.
Zombot War Wagon
- Cyber Cyclops: The third of four.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Can shoot a multi-missile attack that targets the minecart lanes if a plant is on them.
- Mini-Mecha: Smaller than the first game's Zombot, but still deadly.
- One-Hit Kill: His missile attack and charging attack.
- Spider Tank: Has spider-like legs with wheels on each end, which it uses to jump and move around.
Far Future
- The Future: Given this setting, many of the zombies have access to advanced technology, including jetpacks and robots.
- Incredibly Durable Enemies: The Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-Tron 3000, and Mecha-Football Zombie can take much more damage than a normal zombie, and can even survive an instant kill plant.
- Mecha-Mooks: A lot of zombies in this world drive robotic vehicles. They are the Shield Zombie, Bug Bot Imp, Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-Tron 3000, Mecha-Football Zombie, and Gargantuar Prime.
- Red Shirts: Literally; even though they're technically Mooks, the common Future Zombies wear red jumpsuits. This trope is even mentioned by the Almanac:Almanac: Future zombies look good in red shirts. Future fact #23: Nothing bad happens to red shirts.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: All of the Mecha-Mooks can be temporarily disabled by the E.M.Peach.
Jetpack Zombie (and Disco Jetpack Zombie)
- Airborne Mook: Thanks to their Jet Pack. It allows them to fly over most plants with ease.
- Disco Dan: The Disco Jetpack Zombie. He resembles the first game's Dancing Zombie.
- Dungeon Bypass: They can fly over most plants, avoiding them.
- Jet Pack: Used by both of them.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Blover blows them off the screen, instantly killing them.
- Underground Monkey: Disco Jetpack Zombies are basically sprite swaps of Jetpack Zombies, and are summoned by the Disco-tron 3000.
Shield Zombie
It pilots a machine that generates a purple force field to absorb non-piercing shots on three lanes.- Armored But Frail: Its forcefield has nearly the same health as a buckethead, can block three lanes, nullifies splash damage, and regenerates if destroyed. The machine itself has slightly less health than a Conehead.
- Deflector Shields: It uses one to block most projectiles and attacks on three rows until the shield takes enough damage. It will put the shield up again if not killed in time, though.
- No-Sell: The shield blocks any Splash Damage from attacks that hit it.
- Regenerating Shield, Static Health: Its shield can be regenerated if taken down (even though it doesn't regenerate by itself), but any damage that the machine takes is permanent.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Area of Effect attacks like Laser Bean's lasers penetrate the force field. However, the force field makes Splash Damage attacks such as melons useless, even negating the splash should they hit the shield.
Bug Bot Imp
- Death from Above: Bug Bot Imps rain down in a Bot Swarm ambush. This actually can work against them, if a Blover is used at the right time they're blown away instantly.
- Dungeon Bypass: Waves of spawned Bug Bot Imps appear around the middle of the lawn.
- Hopping Machine: Unlike most Imps, these move about by hopping towards the player's house.
- Shout-Out: The Bug Bot Imp when curled up resembles Samus in Morph Ball form.
- Spider Tank: The Bug Bot Imp is a miniature version, and it also has better speed and durability compared to a regular Imp.
- Transforming Mecha: The Bug Bot imp transforms from a small ball into a spider bot twice its size.
Robo-Cone Zombie
- Homage: In-universe, the Robo-Cone Zombie is supposed to be a futuristic advancement of the Conehead Zombie.Almanac: Zombie engineers considered the orange cone the height of zombie protective technology. It wasn't until they perfected the design for the Robo-Cone that someone remembered the bucket.
- Power Pincers: Uses a pair to "eat" your plants.
- Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: It makes a distinctive alarm sound when it's on the lawn.
- Stone Wall: Has extremely high defense, but slow speed.
- Super-Toughness: Has the highest health of all zombies that aren't Zombots or Gargantuars (125 NDS).
Disco-tron 3000
- After some initial problems with the sideburn suspension system, the Disco-tron 3000 went on to become the shufflin' dance-bot of doom it is today.
Piloted by two Imps, this machine that resembles Dancing Zombie's head plays disco music to summon Disco Jetpack Zombies.
- Advanced Tech 2000: Disco-Tron 3000.
- Afro Asskicker: It has the same groovy afro as the Dancing Zombie and can summon Disco Jetpack Zombies to attack.
- Background Music Override: The first Disco-Tron 3000 in a level overrides the music when it summons Disco Jetpack Zombies.
- Face Ship: This machine is modeled after the Dancing Zombie's head (and feet).
- Homage: Is one to the previous game's Dancing Zombie.
- Name-Tron: Disco-Tron 3000.
- Summon Backup Dancers: It can summon 4 Disco Jetpack Zombies, in a similar manner to the Dancing Zombie in the original game.
- Super-Toughness: While not as durable as the Robo-Cone, it can still survive most instant kills.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: If it's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, all the Disco Jetpack Zombies it summons will be tiny and weak too.
Mecha-Football Zombie
- Now past his prime, Mecha-Football Zombie is ready to be put back into the game. Until he gets some brains, concussions aren't a concern.
Resembling Football Zombie's football helmet, this mecha pushes entire rows of plants back, killing those who are pushed off the lawn.
- Face Ship: This machine is modeled after the Football Zombie's head (and feet).
- Homage: Is one to the previous game's Football Zombie. The driver is in fact a Football Zombie who's past his prime. Could also be an inverted one to the All-Star, which attacks the front line to kill plants in a different manner.
- Knock Back: It pushes your plants backwards and off the lawn.
- One-Hit Kill: It can push a plant off the lawn, instantly killing it.
- Pushy Mooks: They don't deal any damage to plants, but will push them and all the other plants behind backwards. Any plant that is pushed past the first column is thrown out of the lawn for a One-Hit Kill.
- Super-Toughness: While not as durable as the Robo-Cone, it can still survive most instant kills.
Gargantuar Prime
- The imp pilots of the Gargantuar Prime series are handpicked by Dr. Zomboss himself. They are the imp elite. The small, the mean, the fearless! But mostly the ones who can drive a stick shift.
A robotic Gargantuar piloted by an Imp. It has two telephone poles for arms, can fire eye beams that devastate plants in the back rows, and launches a Bug Bot Imp when low on health.
- Charged Attack: Its eyes will start to light up and it will make a sound before attacking with beams. Better get the E.M.Peach or Iceberg lettuce ready when that happens.
- Dual Wielding: By way of having telephone poles for both arms. This does allow them to smash twice in a row, one with each arm.
- Enemy Summoner: Like other Gargantuars, it can spawn an Imp variant at half health, this one being the Bug Bot Imp.
- Eye Beams: It can shoot lasers to incinerate the plants in your back rows.
- Improbable Weapon User: Taken up to eleven compared to other Gargantuars - instead of holding a telephone pole to smash your plants with, its arms are telephone poles. Lampshaded by the Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest Travel Log comment.Travel Log: They have telephone poles for arms! TELEPHONE POLES!
- Long-Range Fighter: Compared to other Gargantuars, its slow speed makes it harder for it to get into your lawn and smash your plants. It makes up for this by attacking with long-distance Eye Beams.
- Luck-Based Mission: It sweeps a random spot on the lawn whenever it attacks. If you're lucky, it may not even kill. If you're unlucky, it can kill up to two plants in one go!
- Mighty Glacier: Compared to other Gargantuars, Gargantuar Prime is much slower. However, it smashes plants twice, and also has a ranged attack to kill back-row plants, giving it an edge in plant-killing.
- One-Hit Kill: Its eye lasers deal a great amount of damage to plants, often killing one each time they're fired. Thankfully, leveling up your plants gives them more health to survive the attacks.
- Shout-Out: Its name is a reference to Optimus Prime, being a robot as well.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: It smashes twice in a row. This is enough to destroy even an armored Wall-nut / Tall-nut / Endurian (which would otherwise survive a single smash), and degrade Spikerocks and Primal Wallnuts twice.
Holo Head Zombie
- Hard Light: What his Holo Head armor is made of. It's also very durable too.
- Heavily Armored Mook: He is even more durable than a Knight Zombie and also does not have a weakness to the Magnet-Shroom.
- Improvised Armor: A Hard Light helmet on his head makes him even more durable than a Buckethead.
- Super-Toughness: His holographic helmet gives him phenomenal protection. To wit, he only has 5 less health points than the Robo-Cone Zombie.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Blastronaut Zombie
- Airborne Mook: Thanks to his Jet Pack. It allows him to fly over most plants with ease.
- Dungeon Bypass: They can fly over most plants, avoiding them.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's extremely fast, far faster than the Jetpack Zombie, eats Tall-Nut and Infi-nut shields quickly, and has the same amount of health as a Conehead.
- Jet Pack: Used by him. However, the Almanac apparently shows us that the Jetpack is ornamental, since his hovering ability actually comes from a deep meditative state and being full of helium.
- Power Floats: According to the Almanac, the Jetpack is ornamental. He's able to float because of a deep meditative state. That, and also because he's full of helium.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Blover blows them off the screen, instantly killing them.
Zombot Tomorrow-tron
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Before the 2.4 update, when he's about to target Power Tiles of a certain colour, its eye changes to that color, and displays that shape before launching the missile.
- Cyber Cyclops: The last of four.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Can shoot a multi-missile attack that targets all power tiles of the same color.
- Mini-Mecha: Smaller than the first game's Zombot, but still deadly.
- One-Hit Kill: His missile attack (which also destroys Power Tiles) and charging attack.
- Spider Tank: Has spider-like legs, which it uses to jump and move around.
Dark Ages
- Dark Age Europe:
- This is obviously the setting. Kind of literally as well, as all of the levels take place during nighttime instead of daytime.
- Fittingly enough, the regular zombies are all peasants, which were the most common populace then.
- Dungeon Bypass: Zombies can rise from tombstones.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The Knight Zombie, Wizard Zombie and Jester Zombie respectively. The Knight absorbs a lot of damage, the Wizard stays at the back lines using magic to turn plants into sheep, and the Jester moves quickly and "evades" projectiles via reflecting them while gaining a speed boost. The Chinese version of the game even includes a more traditional rogue in the Bandit zombie, who uses invisibility to avoid being attacked.
Knight Zombie
Knight Zombie was just as surprised as anyone when Zombie King promoted him. He'd never say this out loud, but he's not sure he deserves the position. He's not sure he has what it takes to wear the armor. But like they say, "Fake it 'til you make it."
This zombie wears a knight helmet that grants him even more protection than a Buckethead. If the helmet is destroyed, he becomes a basic Peasant Zombie.- Heavily Armored Mook: He can withstand more punishment than even a Buckethead due to his helmet. Fortunately the helmet can be removed by Magnet-shroom, which is also introduced in Dark Ages.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Magnet-shroom pulls off his knight helmet, making him as durable as any regular Peasant Zombie. The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Jester Zombie
''Oh sure, everyone loves to laugh at Jester Zombie's clownish routines. But what no one knows is that he has a Master of Fine Arts from the Chewliard Performing Arts School. Heck, he's been on stage with some of the finest classical theatre companies this side of the lawn. But sometimes you just gotta go where the paycheck is.
This clownish zombie is immune to projectile attacks, and can even deflect them back at the plants.- Adaptational Wimp: In the Chinese version, he's much less of a threat, due to him being inexplicably unable to reflect the projectiles of several different plants:
- Beware the Silly Ones: His routines, design, and most of his animations are all silly (as befitting of a jester). Still, these traits don't mean he's weak.
- Catch and Return: He can catch projectiles fired at him, and then throw them back. This makes the use of powerful plants like Melon-pult and Citron against him a very bad idea.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: He is immune to non-Plant Food projectile-based attacks... except for that of the Magnifying Grass and Draftodil.
- Monster Clown: An undead medieval version.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: He cannot deflect attacks from Fume-shroom, Snapdragon, Laser Bean, Lightning Reed, Magnifying Grass, Blastberry Vine, Stickyrice Bomb, or Draftodil. He also can't deflect attacks at all when frozen solid or stunned, and many Plant Food attacks also can't be deflected.
Wizard Zombie
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: Any Witch Hazels you may have will prioritize these guys, subjecting them to some transformations themselves.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: His Almanac entry. Nobody is going to argue with the guy who can easily turn others into sheep."Everyone knows it would be more helpful if the Wizard used his powers to turn plants into, say, more zombies. But yeah, no one is going to say that to his face."
- Evil Sorcerer: As he is planning to kill and eat you of course.
- Expy: He resembles Gandalf.
- Forced Transformation: He can turn plants into harmless sheep.
- Mook Chivalry:
- He opts to transform your plants into sheep instead of zombies. His Almanac entry even lampshaded this.
- It's also worth noting that none of the zombies even bother to try eating the sheep for some reason.
- Nerf: An update made it such that he can no longer zap plants from offscreen, making him a lot less dangerous in 4-flag waves in Arthur's Challenge.
- No Ontological Inertia: After a Wizard is killed, all of the plants that he changed into sheep will turn back to normal.
- Our Liches Are Different: He is an undead sorcerer.
- Status Effects: He inflicts a "Weird Transformation" effect by turning plants into useless sheep.
- Support Party Member: He walks slowly and stops every time he turns a plant into a sheep, but he doesn't eat the plants or even damage them at all.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
- Laser Beans can be invaluable for dealing with Wizard Zombies, as they are usually shielded by other zombies.
- The Wizard can't turn the Ghost Pepper into a sheep, while it destroys him quickly.
- Wizard Classic: He certainly has the classic sorcerer's appearance.
- Magic Staff: He uses this to turn plants into helpless sheep.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: He has a blue robe and hat.
- Wizard Beard: His beard is long and white.
Zombie King
- Adipose Rex: He's so obese, that he doesn't even move off his throne.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: A fat zombie king who uses his scepter to promote Peasant Zombies into Knight Zombies.
- Bad Boss: When he appears, Zombie King squashes an Announcer Imp (who seems to be working for him) under his throne.
- Mook Medic: Essentially one to the Peasants, by giving them Knight helmets that greatly increase their survivability.
- Mook Commander: While he doesn't fight, he does turns Peasant zombies into Knight zombies, greatly increasing their toughness and ability to get closer to your plants.
- Mook Promotion: He will grant Knight helmets to any nearby Peasants, greatly toughening them against the plants.
- One-Hit Kill: Although rare because he always spawns on the rightmost column, Zombie King's throne instantly crushes any plant it lands on.
- Support Party Member: He doesn't move or even attack the plants at all, but he can bolster the strength of the zombie horde by promoting them into Knights. If he is the only zombie remaining after all others have been killed, he will die instantly.
- The Unfought: You never get to fight the Announcer Imp as it's invulnerable, and gets crushed by the King when he lands on top.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Laser Beans can be invaluable for dealing with Zombie Kings, as they are usually shielded by other zombies.
Imp Dragon Zombie
''Imp Zombie knows he's too old to wear a dragon costume like a kid on Halloween. But he doesn't care. Let the others judge. His spirit animal is a dragon, and he feels closer to his true self when he's dressed like this.
An Imp dressed in a dragon costume, who is summoned by the Zombot Dark Dragon.
- Developer's Foresight: A hypnotized Imp Dragon is immune to Firebreather Zombie's fire breath, if they happen to appear in the same level.
- Immune to Fire: The only zombie that is completely immune to fire damage. This includes flames on the zombie side, should it be hypnotized.
Zombot Dark Dragon
With a rumble of destruction, Dr. Zomboss forged his Dark Dragon in the heart of a volcano. Then he tempered the beast in the chilled waters of Doom Lake. Finally he fed its furnace with coal from the Mines of Morbidity. And the paint job - that was done by Carl.
The boss of Dark Ages, it can breathe fire to destroy two lanes and render them temporarily unplantable, spit fireballs into the air that rain down to destroy plants and spawn Imp Dragons, and summon Dark Ages zombies.
- Animal Mecha: A dragon mecha.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From his Almanac entry:Almanac: Dr. Zomboss forged his Dark Dragon in the heart of a volcano. Then he tempered the beast in the chilled waters of Doom Lake. Finally he fed its furnace with coal from the Mines of Morbidity. And the paint job - that was done by Carl.
- Bad Boss: Even Zomboss's strongest minions can be killed just by the dragon swinging its neck and head into them, or incinerated when the dragon spits fireballs or tries to burn the plants. Fortunately for the player, Zomboss doesn't particularly care and does this quite a lot, to the point where it's usually more reliable to get the dragon to kill its own waves of Gargantuars, Wizards, Jesters, and Knights.
- Bad Vibrations: The first and only zombot in Plants vs. Zombies 2 who makes the ground shake before it even appears on screen. The screen shakes three times before the battle even begins: a brief earthquake when it jumps off the ground to take flight, a longer and stronger earthquake as it flies over the lawn, and a final tremor from its landing. Then, throughout the battle, it shakes your screen every time it walks around.
- Breath Weapon: Can use a fire breath attack to destroy two lanes of plants.
- Kaiju: Likely the largest zombot in Plants vs. Zombies 1 and 2. It easily dwarfs the original Zombot.
- Humongous Mecha: It's much larger than the other Zombots, considering that its head is about the size of the previous four bosses.
- Our Dragons Are Different: It's a dragon robot, no less!
- Playing with Fire: Being based on a dragon, it's to be expected. It has two versions, a breath that destroys two lanes, and a fireball rain that hits random plants and spawns Imp Dragons.
- One-Hit Kill: Its fireball rain attack, as well as its fire breath.
- Screen Shake: In stark contrast to the game before this point—the other zombots and gargantuars don't shake the ground at all under their movements, unlike in the first game—the dragon makes sure to boast its immense size by shaking the entire lawn under each and every footstep. No matter how chaotic the lawn can get, the earthquakes and stomping sounds can always be seen and heard; they're a good reminder of who you're actually up against.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: The dragon's full body is only seen in its entrance, where it's just a giant shadow that moves across the lawn. Saves them the work of having to design and animate the entire dragon.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Thanks to the iron ring in his nose, it gets attracted and stunned by the boosted Magnet-Shroom.
Big Wave Beach
Pompadour Zombie
Bikini Zombie
The Common Zombies here come in a few different varieties: the male Pompadour Zombie and female Bikini Zombie (both come in Basic, Conehead, and Buckethead versions), and a Beach Flag Zombie (also male, but looks different from the Pompadour Zombie). And of course, there's the Imp Mermaid Zombie and Deep Sea Gargantuar. Also features the Snorkel Zombie (returning from the first game), Surfer Zombie, Fisherman Zombie, and Octo Zombie. The boss of this world is the Zombot Sharktronic Sub.- Aquatic Mook: Given the beach setting, all of the zombies come from the water.
- Beach Episode: The location is some kind of tropical beach.
- Dark Action Girl: This area introduces the game's first two female zombie types, the Bikini Zombie and Imp Mermaid.
- Fan Disservice: Bikini Zombie is a bikini-clad blonde woman with rotten green skin and a vacant expression.
- Sea Monster: The Deep Sea Gargantuar looks the most inhuman and monstrous of all the humanoid zombies, as he appears to be some kind of giant fish-man.
- Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Big Wave Beach and subsequent worlds indicate that the zombie species' primary form of sexual dimorphism is based on the look of their hair, with female zombies consistently having longer, more elaborate, and more feminine hair in contrast to the male zombie's more masculine (though sometimes, lack thereof) hairstyles.
- The '60s: It's set sometime during this decade.
Surfer Zombie
- Improbable Weapon User: He attacks with his surfboard.
- Improvised Armour: When on land, his surfboard acts as a destructible shield against lobbed-shot attacks. Destroying it means that he can't use it to kill your plants.
- Lightning Bruiser: They are exceptionally fast on water, can instantly kill a plant when they get on land, and have a good amount of health for a fast-moving enemy.
- One-Hit Kill: Surfer Zombies can kill a plant by smashing them with his surfboard, which also creates an obstacle.
- Surfer Dude: He can somehow weaponize the sport of surfing.
- Taking You with Me: If he's killed when holding his surfboard (and isn't shrunken/blown up by mine/eaten/burned/dragged into the ground), he'll drop it on the nearest plant, killing it.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Plants that burn him, electrocute him, or eat him will prevent him from dropping his surfboard onto your plants upon death. If he's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, he won't be able to drop his surfboard when killed.
Octo Zombie
- It started innocently enough. One day, Octo Zombie decided to get a pet octopus. But he loved that octopus so much, he got another and another... and another. Next thing you know, he was volunteering at an octopus rescue shelter. And now, well, no one wants to tell him, but he's pretty much the undersea equivalent of a cat lady. You should see how many are living at his house. It's quite startling.
A zombie covered from head to toe in octopi. He throws octopi at the plants to bind them up, rendering them useless.
- Crazy Cat Lady: He is obsessed with octopi, and hoards too many of them. The Almanac even describes him as being the "undersea equivalent of a crazy cat lady".
- The Faceless: Due to having an octopus covering his head.
- Status Effects: He throws octopi that bind up your plants, and the octopi have to be killed in order to release them.
- Support Party Member: He doesn't eat any plants except for Lily Pads or Infi-nut's barrier, but will throw octopi to bind them up and cause them to become a temporary obstacle instead.
Fisherman Zombie
- One-Hit Kill: He can pull plants into the water (or if the plant is beside him, toss them off the screen).
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: According to the Almanac, he always brags about his fishing skills. However, nobody has actually seen him catch any fish.
- Rod-and-Reel Repurposed: He uses his fishing rod to reel your plants towards him into the water for a one hit kill.
- Support Party Member: He doesn't even move towards your house (à la Zombie King), but he drags plants to a watery grave with his hooks.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Infi-nut's Plant Food power can stop the fishing hooks from catching your plants. He also cannot pull Blockoli, and the fishing hook will simply fall down upon hitting it like it does with Infi-Nut's forcefield.
- Weapons of Their Trade: The Fisherman Zombie attacks with a fishing rod.
- You Will Not Evade Me: He pulls plants towards him, making them drown instantly or become easier targets for the zombies.
Zombot Sharktronic Sub
- Animal Mecha: A shark mecha.
- Humongous Mecha: Its head is as large as the first four bosses.
- One-Hit Kill: Its vacuum fan will kill plants that get sucked into the water, and its shark minions will kill random plants on the water.
- Promoted to Playable: In Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes, it became a Legendary playable unit on the Zombies' side.
- Shout-Out: It's one to the Shark from the film version of James and the Giant Peach, both are mechanical sharks that attempt to drag plants into their mouths to destroy them with a Turbine Blender.
- Threatening Shark: A huge shark mecha and a mean boss. Besides this, it can also summon smaller shark minions to One-Hit Kill plants on the water.
- Turbine Blender: Any plant or zombie that gets sucked in faces this. Of course, it can be stopped by Tangle Kelp.
- Vacuum Mouth: Uses it to suck your plants (and his zombies) in. Thankfully, it can be clogged by the Tangle Kelp.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Tangle Kelp causes its vacuum fan to clog up when it gets sucked in, stunning the mecha for a while.
Frostbite Caves
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Every zombie in here is a cave-dwelling Neanderthal from the Ice Age.
- Cryo-Prison: Your plants will get frozen in ice blocks from enough icy winds or Hunter Zombie's snowballs.
- Human Popsicle: Some of them can be found stuck in ice blocks. Especially the Yeti Imps being pushed by Troglobites.
- No-Sell: All the zombies in here are resistant to Iceburg Lettuce, only getting slowed down instead of getting frozen.
- Prehistoria: The Slippy-Slidey Ice World varient, given it takes place during the last Ice Age.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Obviously, as this is the Ice Age after all. Occasionally you'll find plants and zombies frozen in ice blocks.
- Status Effects: The icy winds cause Freeze on your plants as it gradually covers them in ice.
Blockhead Zombie
- Heavily Armored Mook: He is as durable as the Knight Zombie. However, he lacks the weakness to the Magnet-shroom.
- Improvised Armor: An ice block on his head makes him even more durable than a Buckethead.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Hunter Zombie
- An Ice Person: The only zombie (aside from the era's Zombot) with the ability to freeze plants.
- Evil Vegetarian: According to the Almanac, Hunter Zombie is actually a vegetarian. In-game, it doesn't stop him from still going after your brains. But this could be a subversion, as the Almanac is just supposed to be humorous.
- Rule of Three: It takes three snowballs to freeze a plant over, provided that there aren't any winds to speed up the process. He also throws snowballs in bursts of three at a time.
- Snowball Fight: A one-sided version, Hunter Zombie throws snowballs at your plants to chill them and encase them in ice.
- Status Effects: Hunter Zombie causes Freeze on your plants as his snowballs gradually trap them in ice.
- Support Party Member: Like Wizard Zombie and Octo Zombie before it, Hunter Zombie's purpose is to disable your frontline defences, allowing the other zombies to bypass them with ease.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Placing any Fire Plant, Cold Snapdragon, Missile Toe or Infi-Nut's barrier in front will cause the Hunter to waste his time ineffectively throwing snowballs at them.
Yeti Imp
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Albeit tiny and zombified versions of them, much smaller than a Yeti Zombie.
- Rule of Three: Both the Troglobite and Sloth Gargantuar can summon up to 3 Yeti Imps.
Dodo Rider Zombie
- Airborne Mook: They will fly every now and then when they encounter a troublesome plant (such as Spikeweeds/Spikerocks/Lava Guava lava) or ice floe. They're grounded enemies otherwise.
- Artistic License – Biology: Dodos are supposed to be flightless birds. Not in this game, where they can fly for short periods of time.
- Doofy Dodo: The dodo bird ridden by the Dodo Rider Imps. They're actually not that dumb, considering that the Imps managed to use them as a mount and taught them to fly for short periods of time.
- Dungeon Bypass: They will fly over Ice Floes, preventing themselves from being redirected.
- Extinct in the Future: Inverted. It's encountered in the ice age period far before dodos were hunted to extinction. Alluded to when his detractors tell him there's no future in dodos.
- Feathered Fiend: The dodo's a somewhat dimwitted bird but it is trained to mercilessly attack your plants and possibly even eat your brains.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Dodos in real life are native to Mauritius, which is off the coast of Africa, while neanderthals lived in Eastern Eurasia.
- No-Sell: They fly above Slider Tiles if not stunned, becoming immune to the forced movement. They also fly over hazardous plants such as Spikeweed/Spikerocks, as well as Lava Guava's lava pool.
- The Symbiote: Mainly Played for Laughs, but when the Dodo and Rider are electrocuted, it shows that they share a single bone that connects the two together◊. Furthermore, if the dodo is killed, the Imp also dies with it...
- This Is Going to Be Huge: Dodo Rider Zombie believes dodos are the future of transportation, while everybody else tells him that there's no future in dodos. Considering the dodos' eventual extinction thousands of years later, his detractors were right.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Blover and Hurrikale blow away flying Dodo Rider Zombies, instantly killing them.
Troglobite
- Mighty Glacier: He doesn't move very fast and stops to push his ice blocks. If said ice blocks are pushed onto a plant, it's a One-Hit Kill.
- Mook Maker: Troglobites push in three frozen Yeti Imps into battle.
- One-Hit Kill: Troglobites can push ice blocks which will instantly crush any plant, including Spikeweed.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Fire Plants and the Hot Potato will melt his ice blocks, preventing his advance for a short while. Infi-nut's force field prevents him from pushing ice blocks past the barrier. Penetrating plants will hit his ice blocks as well as the Troglobite behind. If he's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, he won't be able to push his ice blocks.
Weasel Hoarder (and Ice Weasels)
Weasel Hoarder claims she's the one who wrote the song "Pop! Goes the Weasel." And for eons now, she's been demanding royalties for it. But everyone just ignores her. They know what Weasel Hoarder can't even carry a tune, much less write a catchy ditty about the sound that vermin make when hugged a bit too tightly.
A cave woman holed up inside a weasel-infested log. When the log takes enough damage, it breaks and releases 7 furry minions to rush your plants.
- Action Girl: The only female zombie in Frostbite Caves.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Like her name suggests, she is very prone to hoarding weasels.
- Dungeon Bypass: Ice Weasels are light and fast enough to be unaffected by ice sliders.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: According to the Almanac, the Weasel Hoarder claims to have written the song "Pop Goes the Weasel", but nobody believes her.
- This might be an indirect reference to Jack-in-the-box Zombie from the original game, whose box plays this familiar tune.
- Fragile Speedster: Ice Weasels can only take 2 normal damage shots, but are extremely fast and appear in numbers.
- Improvised Armor: A log full of weasels. When it's destroyed, it releases the weasels.
- Mook Maker: She spawns a pack of zombie Ice Weasels when sufficiently damaged.
- Raising the Steaks: The weasels are also zombies.
- Stealth Pun: The Ice Weasels make a popping noise when killed. In other words, "Pop Goes the Weasel".
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Penetrating and multi-hit plants are effective against the Ice Weasels, while killing the Weasel Hoarder when she's stunned by the Stunion or Kernel-pult's butter prevents the weasels from being released. If she's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, she won't release any weasels when damaged.
- Wicked Weasel: The Ice Weasels are basically reskins of Zombie Chickens and are just as bloodthirsty, except they can take 2 pea shots worth of damage, instead of being a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
- Zerg Rush: When damaged enough, she releases a rush of 7 weasels in her lane and adjacent ones to attack your plants. While the weasels are slightly slower than chickens, they're also more durable, taking 2 normal damage shots to die.
Sloth Gargantuar
pelt. Unlike most Gargantuars, this one has an infestation of three Yeti Imps, allowing him to throw three minions as he loses health.- Improbable Weapon User: A giant icicle with a zombie hand stuck in it.
- Rule of Three: Unlike other Gargantuars, this one can throw up to three Imps instead of one.
Zombot Tuskmaster 10,000 BC
- An Ice Person: Is capable of freezing your plants via freezing winds.
- Animal Mecha: A mammoth mecha.
- Deployable Cover: The icy walls that it creates block the plants' attacks.
- Humongous Mecha: Its body is never shown, but its head is as large as the first four bosses.
- An Ice Person: Can fire icy projectiles, spawn icy walls, and shoot freezing winds.
- One-Hit Kill: Its icy projectiles can kill a plant. If any plant is in the column that it creates ice walls on, it's also destroyed.
- Shielded Core Boss: Has low health, but it needs to have the ice it's stuck in broken in order for the plants to attack it, plus it also creates more ice walls that need to be destroyed. Once the ice that conceals it is broken, it will be vulnerable for a short while before it covers itself in ice (plus creating a column of ice walls).
- Stationary Boss: Unlike most other Zombots, it doesn't move at all, instead using shielding as defences.
Lost City
- Adventurer Archaeologist: All of these zombies are explorers traveling on an expedition to the fabled Lost City.
- City of Gold: Most of the area is even yellow in color. There's also the Gold Tiles that allow you to produce extra Sun.
- Mayincatec: The Lost City itself looks like the ruins of an old Mesoamerican settlement, however the zombies here seem to be Europeans from the early 20th century.
Lost Pilot Zombie
He faked his pilot's license and figured nobody would notice. But they did.
This aviator parachutes down from the sky and hangs there for a while, before dropping onto the ground.
- Dungeon Bypass: He drops into your defenses during a Parachute Rain.
- Goggles Do Nothing: They don't provide him any extra protection.
- It's Raining Men: Or zombies in this case. During a Parachute Rain, they drop down from the sky into your defences via a parachute... that gets stuck in the trees.
- Parachute in a Tree: They drop down into the lawn, with a parachute stuck in the jungle trees, and hang in there a bit before they eventually drop down (or if a Blover is used).
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Inverted. Using the Blover or Hurrikale on them when they're hanging will immediately cause them to drop to the ground. However, an attack by Draftodil will blow them away.
Excavator Zombie
Excavator Zombie once heard a song about having a hammer. He liked the idea, but decided it was too mainstream for him - so he got a shovel. Now he's confident that he's clearly the coolest zombie, the others are just too jealous to admit it.
He carries a golden shovel to protect himself from straight-firing shots, and uses it to dig up plants and throw them behind him.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: His shovel is made of gold, making it immune to the Magnet-Shroom. It's also very tough despite being gold, being able to withstand almost all straight shots. Bramble Bush is actually capable of removing the shovel, not that it matters much.
- Lightning Bruiser: He is exceptionally fast, has a good amount of health for a fast enemy, is immune to straight shots, and while he doesn't damage plants, he messes up your layout completely.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: He can't be damaged by most straight projectiles.
- No-Sell: He's completely invulnerable to any non-penetrating attack from the front, even a Plant-Food-boosted Pea Pod attack.
- One-Hit Kill: Any plant that he digs up in the last few columns will be instantly thrown out of the lawn.
- Pushy Mooks: He doesn't deal any damage to plants (unless it's Infi-Nut force fields), but will use his shovel to throw them forwards towards the zombie horde. Any plant near the exit will be instantly thrown out of the lawn.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: His shovel acts as a makeshift shield against straight shots.
- Shovel Strike: He uses a shovel to dig up your plants and fling them to another tile. He also uses the traditional version when he encounters an Infi-nut's force field or when he, erm, "eats" your brains.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
- His weakness is any plant that fires lobbed projectiles, or can pierce right through his shovel (such as Laser Bean).
- He also cannot dig up Infi-Nut's force field or Blockoli, and will instead continuously hit at them.
- The Bramble Bush is also capable of removing his shovel, although that doesn't change much considering that he's liable to die very quickly once caught in it.
Parasol Zombie
Wealthy beyond reason, the Parasol Zombie lived a life of luxury - when what she craved was a life of adventure. She funded the expedition to the Lost City and set out to see its wonders for herself, never forgetting to bring her trusty parasol. "In case it rains," she explained - but it only came out sounding like "Brains".
An upper-class lady who carries an umbrella that bounces off almost all lobbed shots.
- Action Girl: The only female zombie in the Lost City.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: She's a wealthy woman who was rich enough to help fund the expedition to the Lost City. She also wants to kill you.
- Expy: She resembles Jane Porter from Tarzan.
- No-Sell: She is immune to lobbed projectiles.
- Parasol of Prettiness: Her blue umbrella, which also doubles as a shield.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Her parasol acts as protection against lobbed shots.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: She is still vulnerable to any straight attack from the front.
Bug Zombie
Bug Zombie and Bug make a great team. Partly because Bug gives Bug Zombie great mobility, but mostly because they share an intense disinterest in horses.
A large dragonfly carrying any Adventurer Zombie, allowing them to swiftly fly over most plants. When the dragonfly is killed, it drops the zombie it was carrying unharmed.
- Airborne Mook: The bug makes any zombie it's carrying into one of these.
- Bones Do Not Belong There: The bug is shown to have an internal skeleton when electrocuted to death. Insects don't have any internal skeletons.
- Dungeon Bypass: It simply flies over most of the player's defenses.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: It's a dragonfly that's even bigger than Meganeura.
- Lightning Bruiser: Any bug carrying a Buckethead is this, being able to move fast while carrying a tough zombie.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Due to being an Airborne Mook, the Blover will blow it away, killing it and the zombie it's carrying instantly. Kernel-pult's butter will also destroy the bug in one hit. If the Bug is killed by the Spore-Shroom, the zombie will die along with it regardless of health. Bonk Choy's finishing uppercut (used on zombies with low HP) will not only kill the bug, but also instakill the zombie being carried by it.
Imp Porter
- Awesome Backpack: It turns into a tent that spawns an endless number of zombies. Unfortunately for the Imp, this also kills him.
- Clown-Car Base: His tents can produce an infinite stream of zombies if not taken down. Lampshaded by their Travel Log's Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest comment:Travel Log: How do they pack all those zombies in there? It strains credulity!
- Mook Maker: He will place a tent on the first Gold Tile he encounters, which will then spawn more zombies from it. If you use a Hypno-Shroom on it then place a Gold Tile in front, he becomes your Mook Maker.
- One-Hit Kill: When killed, Imp Porters will drop their backpack on the tile behind, crushing any plant that's on them, including Spikeweed and Spikerock.
- Punny Name: It sounds like "importer".
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shrinking Violet shrinks him into oblivion.
Relic Hunter Zombie
- Airborne Mook: While he's still swinging on his rope.
- Dungeon Bypass: He can drop in anywhere from the sixth to the fourth column of the field.
- Expy: He resembles Indiana Jones.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: He's considered an Airborne Mook while swinging, making him instantly defeated by the Blover during this period.
Turquoise Skull Zombie
- Bandit Mook: He uses the skull to steal your Sun à la Ra Zombies, but will then use the stolen sun to fire a short-ranged laser that instantly vaporizes any plants. Unlike Ra Zombies, any Sun stolen is lost, even if they're killed before they fire their beam.
- Crystal Skull: His weapon of choice is a Turquoise Skull, and it does reference that unlike crystal skulls, they're non-mysterious and common as dirt.
- Death Ray: His turquoise skull fires out a powerful laser beam to disintegrate your plants.
- Expy: He resembles Archimedes Porter from Tarzan.
- Glass Cannon: He can instantly destroy four or more plants in front of him, but has low health and needs a while to charge up the attack.
- Light Is Not Good: Despite having a shiny crystal and light based abilities, he's still one of the bad guys.
- One-Hit Kill: After stealing Sun, he can shoot a beam that vaporizes any plants it hits. This attack is so powerful, it can even destroy Infi-nut barriers and hypnotized Gargantuars in one hit. However, it cannot kill an armored Wall-nut / Tall-nut / Endurian, instead removing a good amount of their armor in one hit.
- Power Crystal: His weapon is a skull artifact made of turquoise crystal, which can absorb sunlight and fire out a deadly beam.
- The Power of the Sun: The turquoise skull absorbs Sun to increase the damage of its laser beams.
- Shout-Out: An obvious one to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Zombot Aerostatic Gondola
- Always Accurate Attack: His Flame Trap only destroys a single lane of plants, but it's NOT stoppable unlike most of the other Zombots' instant-kill attacks.
- Cool Airship: An aerial gondola that can summon zombies, one of a few vehicles used by Zomboss that isn't a mecha robot.
- Death from Above: It can summon Lost Pilot Zombies in a parachute ambush. Worse still, they CAN appear over the boulder Death Trap, and if it falls down, it will kill two columns of your plants.
- Death Trap: Three Boulder Traps are at the left side of the lawn, while the rightmost column are all Flame Traps. Zomboss will drop sandbags on the Flame Traps to destroy a row of plants.
- One-Hit Kill: Can drop a sandbag onto a Flame Trap to destroy a lane of plants.
Neon Mixtape Tour
- The '80s: The setting of this area. Fittingly, all the zombies here are themed after a music genre or subculture from this decade.
- '80s Hair: Especially Glitter Zombie's and Hair Metal Gargantuar's hairstyles.
- Band Land: The theme of this world is 1980s music, and it's the only area in which multiple music tracks can play within the same level. Also see Theme Music Power-Up below.
- Theme Music Power-Up: All the special zombies listed here will gain new and dangerous abilities when their favorite music (Jams) play. The Jams are Punk, Pop, Rap, 8-bit, Ballad, and Metal; respectively used by the Punk Zombie, Glitter Zombie, MC Zom-B and Breakdancer Zombie, Arcade Zombie and 8-bit Zombies, Boombox Zombie, and Hair Metal Gargantuar.
Punk Zombie
- Punk Zombie's piercings represent his individuality and his belief in personal freedom, or maybe just that he fell face-first into a sewing machine.
A punk wearing a mohawk and metal piercings. When the Punk Jam plays, he will run up and kick any plants he encounters backwards.
- Glass Cannon: He takes only 12 normal damage shots to kill, but can kick plants off the lawn while moving very quickly during his Punk Jam.
- Knock Back: He can kick your plants back to the nearest empty space behind (or off the lawn if there's none).
- One-Hit Kill: He can instantly kill a plant if he kicks it, and there's no space behind for it to land on.
- Punched Across the Room: Whenever he kicks a plant, this has the possibility of happening if the nearest space to land on is far to the left.
- Pushy Mooks: He doesn't deal any damage to plants (except Infi-nut forcefields), but will push them backwards to the nearest empty space. If there is none available, that plant is kicked out of the lawn instead.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Celery Stalker can hurt him from behind, and he can't kick it when it's underground. He also can't kick plants that are blocked by Infi-nut's barrier. Magnet-shroom can also instantly kill him by ripping off his head.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Due to all the metal piercings on his face, Punk Zombie is vulnerable to the Magnet-shroom, which instantly kills him by ripping off his head.
Glitter Zombie
- Glitter Zombie inspires zombies everywhere to boogie their brains out, whether it's just one moment or maybe forever, or at least until the lights come on and they're kicking everybody out.
A girl who moves across the lawn on roller skates. When the Pop Jam plays, she gains the ability to run over and crush any plants with her skates, while producing a rainbow trail that makes any other zombies behind her invincible.
- Action Girl: The only female zombie in Neon Mixtape Tour.
- Combat Medic: During the Pop Jam, she can remove status effects including slowing, stun, and Shadow-Shroom's poison, and she will One-Hit Kill any plant in her way.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: When the Pop Jam plays, she creates a rainbow trail that provides invulnerability to most forms of harm to the zombies behind her.
- Expy: She's based on the roller-skating muses that make rainbow trails from Xanadu, a musical that debuted in the 1980s.
- Knockback: When her Pop Jam is playing, she will kill most plants and hypnotized zombies, except Gargantuars, which get knocked backwards towards the house instead. This can actually cause the player to lose thanks to the hypnotized Gargantuar reaching the house.
- Light Is Not Good: Despite having rainbows as her motif and protection abilities, she's still a zombie and will eat your brains.
- Mighty Glacier: During a Pop Jam, all zombies slow down, but her skates turn into an instant kill attack.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Any zombies within her rainbow trail become invulnerable to damage as well as status effects. (Magnet-shroom can still affect Bucketheads, though.)
- No Self-Buffs: Glitter Zombie's rainbow trails provide invulnerability to all zombies behind her, but thankfully, not herself or other Glitter Zombies.
- One-Hit Kill: Her skates destroy most plants and hypnotized zombies (except hypnotized Gargantuars) when her Pop Jam is playing.
- Rollerblade Good: She rolls into the battle on roller skates, which can also crush most plants very quickly when her Jam plays.
- Status Buff: Her rainbows provide both Nigh-Invulnerability, and also removes and prevents slowing/stun status effects from affecting them.
- Support Party Member: Her rainbows provide protection and invulnerability to status effects to all zombies in it.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Magnet-Shroom can still affect any Neon Bucketheads, 8-Bit Bucketheads and Punk Zombies protected by her. The Thyme Warp also sends her and all zombies back to the start point, meaning that there wouldn't be as many zombies behind protected by her.
MC Zom-B
- Combination Attack: During a Rap Jam, MC Zom-B and Breakdancer Zombie both have their special abilities activate, allowing the latter to kick the former deeper into the lawn to wreak havoc on your plants.
- Spectacular Spinning: He uses a Spin Attack with his microphone to decimate your plants.
- Evil Counterpart: He is this to Phat Beet, both of whom have a 3x3 area attack to attack plants/zombies around them.
- Glass Cannon: He takes only 12 normal shots to kill, but can instantly kill most plants around him during his Jam.
- Improbable Weapon User: He attacks plants with his microphone when his Jam plays.
- "Instant Death" Radius: When the Rap Jam plays, he gains the ability to instantly kill all but the sturdiest plants in a 3x3 area around him.
- One-Hit Kill: A mook with an "Instant Death" Radius attack when his Jam plays, capable of killing most plants that aren't defensive or low-lying in one hit.
- Spin Attack: He spins his microphone to kill any non-defensive plants around him.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: His microphone attack decimates close-ranged plants, but he can't use it against Spikeweed or Spikerock. Penetrating plants will also do him in thanks to his low health. The Shrinking Violet will shrink his attack range with him, preventing him from attacking adjacent lanes.
Breakdancer Zombie
- Combination Attack: During a Rap Jam, MC Zom-B and Breakdancer Zombie both have their special abilities activate, allowing the latter to kick the former deeper into the lawn to wreak havoc on your plants.
- Dungeon Bypass: During the Rap Jam, he will spin around and kick other zombies further towards your house. This is especially dangerous when paired up with MC Zom-B.
- Spectacular Spinning: He will spin around to kick other zombies forward, giving them a shorter distance to your brains.
- Helpful Mook: If timed correctly, a Blover will cause any zombies kicked by him to be blown away, effectively turning his pushing attempt on its head.
- Support Party Member: During the Rap Jam, he will breakdance and spin, sending zombies forwards quickly. Coupled with MC Zom-B's ability to spin his microphone during the same Jam, this becomes very dangerous, overcoming MC's weakness of low durability and close range.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Any zombie being kicked by Breakdancer Zombie is vulnerable to the Blover.
Arcade Zombie (and 8-bit Zombies)
- Composite Character: Of Troglobite and Imp Porter. He pushes obstacles akin to the former, and said obstacle can spawn zombies like the latter's tent.
- The Game Come to Life: When the 8-bit Jam plays, the arcade machine will produce 8-bit Zombies. Despite not even being "real", they still act like any other zombie.Almanac: Being made out of light and positional co-ordinates has no effect on this ersatz zombie's ravenous hunger for tangy brains.
- Geek: For the most part, the Arcade Zombie seems to be a stereotypical gamer.
- Geek Physiques: However, this aspect is completely averted. Despite looking like a geek, he has a very buff physique akin to Octo Zombie and Troglobite. It must be a result of pushing that heavy arcade cabinet around.
- Just One More Level!: Arcade Zombie's Almanac entry shows that he's really addicted to the arcade game he's playing.Almanac: When it's a choice between quarters for games and quarters for laundry, Arcade Zombie is prepared to make the ultimate stinky sacrifice.
- Mook Maker: When the 8-bit Jam plays, the arcade cabinet will continuously spawn 8-bit Zombies (including Basic, Conehead, and Buckethead variants). This can be very bad news if the arcade cabinet is pushed close to your house.
- Nerd Glasses: He wears a pair of big square glasses.
- One-Hit Kill: The arcade cabinet can instantly crush any plant it slides into.
- Retraux: The 8-Bit Zombies are well, zombies rendered in 8-bit graphics.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: If he's shrunk by the Shrinking Violet, he won't be able to push his arcade machine.
- Video Arcade: During the 8-bit Jam, the lawn gets 8-bit light effects to simulate one.
Boombox Zombie
- Background Music Override: While he plays the Ballad Jam, it overrides the other Jam that was playing.
- Expy: He is based on Lloyd Dobler from the 1989 film Say Anything..., even holding a boombox that plays romantic music, and his Almanac entry states that he "doesn't want to buy, sell or process anything".
- Helpful Mook: When the Ballad Jam plays, it makes the zombies twice as slow, and it removes the other zombies' Jam abilities. If you're using Phat Beets (which are immune to his music), this can actually be a help during a dire situation.
- Logical Weakness: His music has no effect on Phat Beet as Phat Beet is wearing his own headphones which drowns out the music.
- Status Effects: His Jam causes a Sleep-like effect on most plants that listen to it, although it visually resembles Charm.
- Support Party Member: He uses his boombox to stun most of your plants with Ballad music.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Ballad Jam doesn't affect Phat Beet or low-lying plants.
Hair Metal Gargantuar
- Improbable Weapon User: He attacks with a gigantic electric guitar. During his Metal Jam, it also sends out a sonic shockwave that can instantly kill the first plant it hits most of the time.
- One-Hit Kill: Like other Gargantuars in the series, it can smash most plants in one hit. Its sonic shockwaves deal half the damage of MC Zom-B's microphone attack, but that's already enough to destroy most non-defensive plants in one hit.
- The Power of Rock: His special Jam ability is to produce a sonic shockwave every time he smashes with his guitar, decimating most plants in 1-2 hits.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The shockwave attack is absorbed by Infi-nut's projector, even if the Infi-nut is "dead".
Zombot Multi-stage Masher
The boss of Neon Mixtape Tour. Unlike other Zombots, this one isn't a mecha robot or even any kind of vehicle at all; instead, it's Zomboss performing a music concert on a stage. It can summon Neon Mixtape Tour zombies, drop speakers that deal damage over time to plants in front of it (except Phat Beet), and cause the speakers to send out a shockwave that destroys one row of your plants.- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Zomboss instantly changes clothes (in a poof of smoke) whenever he gets to the next phase.
- Deployable Cover: He can drop a speaker to crush a plant, and also serve as an obstacle that deals Damage Over Time.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: The right-most speakers can fire out soundwaves to destroy a row of plants (and zombies).
- Produce Pelting: What you essentially do to Zomboss, especially with Spore-Shroom.
- One-Hit Kill: Can drop speakers to crush your plants, as well as sending out a shockwave from the right-most speakers to destroy a lane of plants.
- Sequential Boss: Unlike most of the other bosses which have three phases, this one has five, each one representing a different Jam (Punk, Pop, Rap, 8-bit, and Metal; Ballad is absent here), spawning the respective zombies for each Jam.
- Shielded Core Boss: Is protected by a column of speakers which he replaces if destroyed, said speakers are also used for his One-Hit Kill soundwave attack. Thankfully, Spore-Shroom fires over them, while Cactus penetrates them.
- Stationary Boss: Zomboss doesn't move from his spot at all, as he's on a stage instead of driving a vehicle.
Jurassic Marsh
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: All the zombies here look much like the undead Neanderthals from Frostbite Caves, except they have less hair and clothing. Even though no hominid should even be co-existing with dinosaurs in the first place.
- Anachronism Stew: Zombies existing way before humans did? This is actually lampshaded by the Almanac entries for Jurassic Flag Zombie and Jurassic Gargantuar, which note how anachronistic the zombies are.
Jurassic Fossilhead
A Jurassic Zombie with a triceratops skull on his head, which gives him even more protection than a Buckethead. When the skull is destroyed, he is reduced to being a basic Jurassic Zombie.- Heavily Armored Mook: He is as durable as the Knight Zombie. However, he lacks the weakness to the Magnet-shroom.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Wears a triceratops skull as headgear, giving him impressive defense.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Jurassic Imp
- Fragile Speedster: Has half the health of a regular Imp, but moves and eats much faster.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Eats plants very quickly despite being tiny. Not even Wall-Nuts are safe for long.
Jurassic Bully
- Achievements in Ignorance: According to Penny, the reason why it cannot be knocked back while Gargantuars can is because it's too stupid to observe typical physics.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: His Almanac entry:"Jurassic Bully is slow, stupid, and smells bad. But hey, at least he's punctual."
- Dumb Muscle: Both Penny and the Almanac call him stupid, although zombies in general aren't very bright. The Jurassic Bully however, is so stupid that it doesn't even observe typical physics, but it is more muscular and hence more durable than almost all zombies without headwear or vehicles.
- Immune to Flinching: Can't be knocked back by Primal Peashooter.
- No-Sell: Is completely immune to being knocked back by Primal Peashooter.
- Stone Wall: Moves as quickly as a normal zombie, but has a lot of health.
Jurassic Gargantuar
- Mighty Glacier: Compared to other Gargantuars in the sequel, he's slower, but he still kills plants in one hit.
- One-Hit Kill: Like other Gargantuars in the series, it will smash most plants it encounters instantly.
- Stone Wall: Compared to other Gargantuars. He has 1.5x their health, but is slower to compensate. This is enough to be able to withstand a strike from the
Electric Blueberry at full health. - Super-Toughness: It's the only non-boss enemy in the game that can survive a single hit from Electric Blueberry's attack, which will otherwise One-Hit Kill every other non-boss enemy in the game. It doesn't matter much- the cloud zaps him again to finish him off.
Amberhead Zombie
- Heavily Armored Mook: He is even more durable than a Knight Zombie and also does not have a weakness to the Magnet-Shroom.
- Improvised Armor: A block of amber on his head makes him even more durable than a Buckethead.
- Super-Toughness: His block of amber gives him phenomenal protection. To wit, he only has 5 less health than a Robo-Cone.
- Shout-Out: His Almanac entry has an obvious one to Jurassic Park:"If you were to extract DNA from the Amberhead Zombie and combine it with the DNA of a frog, you'd be breaking the law at some point."
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Shadow-Shroom's poison will affect him directly, ignoring his armor entirely and killing him within seconds.
Jurassic Rockpuncher
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's from the Jurassic period and he punches your plants with rocks tied to his hands.
- Immune to Flinching: Like his predecessor, he can't be knocked back by Primal Peashooter.
- Made of Iron: Doesn't even wear any armor and isn't a Mini-Mecha, yet can take nearly as much damage as a Robo-Cone!
- Mighty Glacier: He moves even slower than a normal zombie, but his attack is a One-Hit Kill on most plants.
- No-Sell: Is completely immune to being knocked back by Primal Peashooter.
- One-Hit Kill: Instantly destroys most plants via smashing them. Not only that, but it leaves a crater behind.
- Power Fist: Uses the Bamboo Technology version of it, which are basically rocks tied to his hands. He uses them to smash your plants for a One-Hit Kill and leave a temporary unplantable crater behind.
- Rock Beats Laser: In both the literal and figurative example of the trope, it can and will kill the Hard Light laser Infi-Nut, projector and all, by smashing it with rocks tied to its fists.
- Super-Toughness: Has a massive amount of health, around that of a Robo-Cone zombie. To wit, he can survive a single instant kill plant.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: His smash attack cannot kill Primal Wall-Nut in one hit, instead dealing the same amount of damage as a Gargantuar smash on it. Furthermore, if this kills the Primal Wall-Nut, it won't leave an unplantable crater behind, allowing the player to stall it further with another.
Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur
- Animal Mecha: A dinosaur mecha.
- The Beastmaster: It summons dinosaurs to appear on the lawn and help the zombies.
- Composite Character: This Zombot appears to be a mixture between the Dark Dragon and the Sharktronic Sub
- Eye Beams: Uses them to destroy one lane of plants (and zombies).
- One-Hit Kill: It fires missiles at random plants to instantly kill them. In the last two phases, it fires Eye Beams down a lane, incinerating all plants and zombies on it. Though Primal Wallnut (One of the plants you get in this Zombot Fight) can survive both of these, losing only a third of its health.
Dinosaurs
These prehistoric reptiles are not zombies, nor even enemies in the traditional sense. The dinosaurs cannot be harmed at all, and they do not attack plants (at least not directly). They do however help out the zombies, but if charmed by the Perfume-shroom, they will attack the zombies instead. They will also flee if Plant Food is used on Meteor Flower unless they are charmed.The Dinosaurs are Raptor, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Ankylosaurus.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The dinosaurs and reptiles here did not exist in the same era. Stegosaurus existed in the Jurassic period, while all the others existed in the Cretaceous period.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: None of the dinosaurs can be harmed or even affected by the plants, with the exception of the Perfume-Shroom and Meteor Flower's Plant Food.
- Mind-Control Eyes: The dinosaurs get hearts in their eyes when they're affected by the perfume-shroom.
- Mook–Face Turn: Can be done to the Dinosaurs via the Perfume-shroom.
- Obliviously Evil: While the dinosaurs aren't truly allied with the zombies, the zombies still end up benefitting from their instinctive reactions to the zombie horde.
- One-Hit Kill: When charmed, all of them have the ability to instantly kill most zombies. Most of them can instantly kill the extremely durable Jurassic Gargantuar instantly.
- Primal Fear: All non-charmed dinosaurs will immediately flee the scene if Meteor Flower's plant food is used, having this fear even before the actual extinction-causing meteor arrives.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Charming the dinosaurs turns them against the zombies, causing them to attack and kill the zombies.
Raptor
This blue dinosaur wanders back and forth a lane, kicking any zombies it encounters three squares forwards, past your defences. If charmed, it kicks zombies out of the lawn.- Artistic License – Paleontology: They're not feathered and resemble Jurassic Park's interpretation of them.
- Dungeon Bypass: By kicking zombies a third of the lawn forwards.
- Megaton Punch: When it's charmed, it'll kick zombies off the lawn when it touches them.
- One-Hit Kill: Only when charmed. It'll punt zombies so hard they're sent flying away. Including Jurassic Gargantuars.
- Raptor Attack: They're not hostile to plants, but any zombie they come across gets viciously kicked forward towards the house. If he's charmed, the zombies get to experience getting kicked outta the lawn instead.
Stegosaurus
- Dungeon Bypass: By catapulting zombies to the fourth column of the lawn.
- One-Hit Kill: Only when charmed. It'll smash zombies with his spiked tail. It takes two strikes to defeat a Jurassic Gargantuar, however.
- Splash Damage: When charmed, its Tail Slap also hits zombies in a 3x3 area around the impact for 10 damage each.
- Tail Slap: Only when charmed. It'll bring its tail down on the zombies, instantly killing them.
Pterodactyl
This green pterosaur grabs a zombie with its feet, turns them around, then places them at the front square of your lawn, letting them eat your defences from behind. If charmed, it carries zombies away.- Airborne Mook: Unlike most other Airborne Mooks, both it and the zombie it's carrying cannot be affected by projectiles.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The Pterodactyl is a huge pterosaur with teeth, and it also uses its feet to carry zombies past your defences.
- Dungeon Bypass: It carries a zombie to the first square from your house then turns them around, essentially allowing them to destroy your defences from behind like a Prospector.
- One-Hit Kill: Only when charmed. It will grab a normal sized zombie and carry them away, before returning in without the zombie.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: It cannot carry zombies that have been shrunk down by the Shrinking Violet.
- Terror-dactyl: Both ways, but especially when hypnotized. Normally, they will grab and carry a zombie to your back lines to eat your plants from behind, but when hypnotized, they will carry the front-most zombie away, never to be seen again. It cannot carry the small Imps or the heavy Gargantuars, however.
Tyrannosaurus rex
- All Animals Are Dogs: Exhibits dog-like behaviour, such as sticking its tongue out and panting, as well as wagging its tail like a dog. In the Jurassic Marsh Part 2 Trailer, it even "fetches" a missile launched by the Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur.
- Just Eat Him: The zombies it eats disappear instantly.
- Mighty Roar: It does this, causing the zombies in its lane to temporarily move faster.
- One-Hit Kill: Only when charmed. It will eat the zombies, including Jurassic Gargantuars.
- Status Buff: Uses a Mighty Roar to scare the zombies into moving faster.
Ankylosaurus
- Epic Flail: It uses its club-tail to hit zombies forward, or fling them away if it's charmed.
- Knock Back: Any zombies hit by it will hit the first plant in the lane and push it backwards akin to Mecha-Football Zombie.
- One-Hit Kill: When it isn't charmed, any plant that gets pushed off the lawn by the zombies it propels will be killed. When charmed, it will fling groups of zombies away with its tail, including Jurassic Gargantuars.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Placing Spikeweed/Rocks, Ghost Pepper, Cactus or Celery Stalker stops the pushed zombies in their tracks without being pushed back, effectively lowering its threat level by a lot... until an update made the pushed zombies ignore them.
Modern Day
Super-Fan Imp
- Super-Fan Imp has season tickets, subscribes to the team newsletter, and is super pumped about exploding on contact with fans of the opposing team.
An Imp with the explosive penchant of blowing up on the opposing team when kicked by All-Star zombie.
- Action Bomb: It will explode on any non-defensive plant it touches, burning itself and most likely the plant to a crisp. This is a One-Hit Kill on most normal plants unless they're leveled up, in which case the plant can survive.
- Expy: Resembles the Imp Punt from Garden Warfare. Justified, since All-Star Zombie is based on the All-Star himself.
- Combination Attack: All-Star Zombie will kick him over your plants into a back-row plant which it will blow up on.
- Serious Business: He loves his team so much he'll blow himself up to take down the plants after getting punted by an All-Star Zombie.
- Suicide Attack: When it encounters a non-defensive plant, it will explode and burn that plant to a crisp.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: If Infi-Nut with a Force Field is planted from columns 3, all Imps punted will hit the force field and are forced to eat it when punted, instead of exploding.
- Taking You with Me: It commits suicide when it lands on a non-defensive plant after touching them, burning itself up with the plant.
Brickhead Zombie
- After consultation with various storybook wolves, it was determined that straw helmets and wood helmets were not up to snuff, and that brick helmets had to be seriously considered.
A zombie whose head is encased in bricks, serving as the Modern Day counterpart to the likes of Pyramid-Head Zombie and Barrel-Head Zombie.
- Heavily Armored Mook: His brick helmet makes him much more durable than even a Knight Zombie.
- Shout-Out: His almanac description references The Three Little Pigs.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Poison attacks and Chili Beans will ignore the helmet and kill him quickly.
Sunday Edition Zombie
- Sunday Edition Zombie REALLY loves the comics section, which is why his rage is so all-consuming when it is torn to tatters before he's finished reading it.
The upgraded version of Newspaper Zombie, whose newspaper absorbs more damage.
- Bald of Evil: Shares the same comb-over hairstyle as Newspaper Zombie.
- Berserk Button: Having his newspaper destroyed before he can finish reading the comics section.
- Elite Mook: Newspaper Zombie was already a tough case, but this guy can take more punishment.
- Goofy Print Underwear
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Is dressed in a purple suit jacket and tie over his undies.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Compared to Newspaper Zombie, this guy's newspaper absorbs more damage.
- Turns Red: Like Newspaper Zombie, he gets enraged when his newspaper is destroyed.
Chinese Exclusives
Misc Exclusives
Zombies that are exclusive to the Chinese version of the game, either appear outside the Chinese exclusive worlds. Whether it's a world released internationally, or a different game mode or event.
Features: Theif Zombie, Cavalry Zombie, Archmage Zombie, Wolf Zombie, Shell Zombie, Walrus Zombie, Ski Zombie, Wind Ice Cheif Zombie, Lost Doctor Zombie, Lost Guide Zombie, Bass Zombie, Egg Pusher Imp, Eggshell Imp, Egg Stealer Imp, (and Baby Dinosaurs) Riot Police Zombie, Solar Car Zombie, Rocket Imp, Gunpowder Devil, Snow Pea Zombie, and Explode-o-Nut Zombie.
Digger Zombie, Jack-In-The-Box Zombie, Gatling Pea Zombie, and Jalapeno Zombie also return from the first game. Digger for Modern Day, the two Zombotany Zombies for Penny's Pursuit, and Jack-In-The-Box eventually came back in Memory Lane.
Bandit Zombie
A stealthy hooded zombie with a mask. Drinks a potion of invisibility that makes him both invisible to the player, and nigh-invincible to most forms of harm. Appears in Dark Ages.- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The Thief between the Knight and the Wizard, even moreso than the Jester by virtue of being an actual rogue who uses invisibility to avoid being attacked.
- Stealthy Mook: He can turn invisible to both the plants and you, the player, to sneak past your defenses.
Cavalry Zombie
A Knight Zombie carrying a lance, and riding a horse. Charges and kills the first plant they meet, throwing the Knight forward, and leaving the lance on that tile as an obstacle. Appears in Dark Ages, and returns as Guard Cavalry Zombie in Fairytale Forest.- Begin with a Finisher: His opening rush with the lance.
- Composite Character: He is a Knight Zombie, and essentially has the abilities of Zombie Bull/Bull Rider Imp and Surfer Zombie.
Archmage Zombie
A magical zombie that puts plants to sleep in 3x3 areas. Appears in Dark Ages.- Elite Mook: the (first) elite version of Wizard Zombie.
Wolf Zombie
This zombie is wearing a wolf costume, and serves as a boss in the hard mode version of Night 20 in Dark Ages. Blows plants off the screen for a One-Hit Kill, and blowing his horn gives a speed boost to all zombies on screen.- Hard Mode Perks: Only appears in hard mode.
- Unique Enemy: Only Appears once in exactly one level: Dark Ages Night 20 on hard mode.
Shell Zombie
This zombie uses a clamshell as armor, which also deals great damage by clapping with the shell. Once he reaches land, he closes the shell and destroys all plants in his path. Appears in Big Wave Beach.- Heavily Armored Mook: So much that he can survive One-Hit Kill plants on his own, with the shell.
- Mighty Glacier: despite his strength and survivability, he moves very slowly.
- One-Hit Kill: Both on land and water, it can instantly destroy plants by clapping the shell or ramming plants.
Walrus Zombie
A walrus that flops halfway across your lawn before stopping. Leaves behind an ice trail that can't be planted on for a while. Appears in Frostbite Caves.- Support Party Member: Since he never goes further than the middle column on his own, he'll never try to eat your brains. His main purpose is assisting in Ski Zombie's gimmick.
Ski Zombie
This zombie sports some skis and uses them to speed across your lawn. If he reaches a stopped Walrus Zombie, he uses them as a ramp and jumps to the farthest left rows. How far he goes depends on where the Walrus Zombie stopped. Appears in Frostbite Caves.- Anachronism Stew: It's unknown what a skier is doing during the last Ice Age.
- Dungeon Bypass: Jumps to the farthest left row thanks to Walrus Zombie.
- Mook Chivalry: Subverted. What makes him different from other zombies who go to the first row, is that he will continue walking towards your house. So, instead of going back to take out your defenses from behind, he is a few steps away from eating your brains
Chief Ice Wind Zombie
A big zombie that blows a chilling wind to freeze plants. Appears in Frostbite Caves.- Breath Weapon: Blowing cold wind is his main attack.
- An Ice Person: His breath is able to freeze plants.
Lost Doctor Zombie
Throws syringes to slow down plants and will throw them at zombies to give them a minor speed boost. Appears in Lost City.- Giant Medical Syringe: His syringes are quite large.
- Support Party Member: Assists by slowing down plants, and is slow himself.
Lost Guide Zombie
A unique zombie that only appears in Day 16 of Lost City. Uses a metal detector to uncover a secret tunnel in the ground that acts like a shortcut. He and all other zombies can enter the shortcut.- Dungeon Bypass: The tunnel he discovers acts like this for him and all other zombies.
- Unique Enemy: Only appears in exactly one level: Lost City Day 16.
Bass Zombie
This bassist descends from the sky and places a speaker on the lawn. Then rocks on his guitar to send damaging shockwaves at plants. Appears in Neon Mixtape Tour.- Rockers Smash Guitars: If his boombox is destroyed, he smashes his guitar on the ground in rage, and moves forward like a regular zombie.
- Musical Assassin: Shoots sound waves at plants to deal damage.
Egg Pusher Imp
An imp wearing a dinosaur costume that looks like the Raptor. pushes dinosaur eggs forward across the lawn. Appears in Jurassic Marsh.- Luck-Based Mission: His eggs are randomized.
Egg Stealer Imp
This imp is carrying a dinosaur egg, which he throws to kill the first plant he encounters. Appears in Jurassic Marsh.- Luck-Based Mission: Just like Egg Pusher, his eggs are randomized.
Eggshell Imp
This imp has hatched freshly from an egg, which he uses as armor. Spawns randomly from Egg Pusher Imp and Egg Stealer Imp. Appears in Jurassic Marsh.- Eggshell Clothing: Acts as his surprisingly tough armor.
Baby Dinosaurs
Little baby versions of the dinosaurs that hatch out of the eggs Egg Pusher Imp and Egg Stealer Imp have. They each spawn randomly from Egg Imps, and each one has a different event upon hatching. Appear in Jurassic Marsh.Riot Police Zombie
A Riot Policeman zombie. Wields a shield for protection, a baton that deals extra damage, and throws smoke bombs to disable plants. Appears in Modern Day.Solar Car Zombie
A zombie who drives a car that can fire a beam of light that instantly destroys plants. Once the meter on his back is full, he charges at plants, pushing them back a tile. He can also steal sun too fill the meter. Appears in Modern Day.- Anachronism Stew: Looks like he belongs more in Far Future than Modern Day. Even the zombie inside wears a red shirt, just like the Future Zombies.
- Composite Character: Is essentially Mecha-Football Zombie, mixed with Turquoise Skull Zombie.
Gunpowder Devil
A boss zombie hailing from Kongfu World. He summons zombies, throws large bombs at plants, and summons imps onto the lawn. Appears in Daily Challenges.Rocket Imp
Imps hailing from Kongfu World that are wearing tiger costumes. They're summoned by Gunpowder Devil and fly above the lawn on rockets. Swiping on them is the main way to make them land, and upon landing, they shuffle forward at 3x the speed of normal imps. Appears in Daily Challenges.Snow Pea Zombie
A zombie/plant hybrid that's very similar to the Zombotany Zombies from the first game, but this zombie has the head of a Snow Pea. Appears in Penny's Pursuit.Explode-o-Nut Zombie
A zombie/plant hybrid that's very similar to the Zombotany Zombies from the first game, but this zombie has the head of an Explode-o-Nut. Appears in Penny's Pursuit. Kongfu World
Kongfu Zombie
Monk Zombie
The Common Zombies are Kongfu Zombies and Monk Zombies, with the latter coming in more varieties than Cone and Buckethead. Also features Hammer Zombies, Torch Kongfu Zombies, Gong Zombies, Exploding Zombies, Qigong Zombies, Drinking Zombies, Nunchaku Zombies, Torch Monk Zombies, Drinking Monk Zombies, Monk Imps, Knight Bronze, Qigong Bronze, Han Bronze, and Admiral Helmet Zombies.- Everybody Was Kungfu Fighting: It's in Imperial China, called Kongfu World and these zombies are no exception!
- Imperial China: Specifically 1673, the early Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty.
- Mook Promotion: Weapon Stands appear throughout the lawn in levels, holding one of the equipment the special zombies in this world use. Any basic Kongfu or Monk Zombie that reaches the stand will take it and transform into the respective zombie that uses it.
Hammer Zombie
A zombie wielding a large sledgehammer. Although, he doesn't use it to attack. He instead spins to deflect projectiles in a similar fashion to Jester Zombie. But he becomes tired after a while and stops to take a breath.
- No-Sell: Is immune to projectile-based attacks just like Jester.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Spins around with his sledgehammer to deflect projectiles.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: He cannot reflect lobbed shots.
Torch Kongfu Zombie
These zombies carry a torch that can burn most plants instantly. He is a complete copy and reskin of Explorer Zombie.
- One-Hit Kill: His torch can instantly destroy any plant that isn't low-lying.
- Playing with Fire: He uses his torch as a deadly weapon.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Ice-based plants will put out his torch.
Drinking Zombie
A Kongfu zombie who drinks a potion after taking enough damage, making him both faster and stronger.
- The Alcoholic: Implied. While it's left ambiguous on what beverage he's drinking, it is mentioned in the Almanac that he was drunk before he died, and he sure likes to drink from his bottle as a zombie.
- Lightning Bruiser: Drinking from his bottle makes him this.
- Power-Up Food: Every sip from his bottle will make him faster and more muscular.
- Turns Red: Drinks his bottle after taking enough damage, making him faster and stronger.
Qigong Zombie
An old zombie who practices Quigong. He uses it to pull his entire lane of plants towards the front of the lawn.- Support Party Member: Moves slowly, and his ability makes it easier for other zombies to eat or kill your plants, by bringing them closer.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Radish protects all plants behind them from getting pulled by Qigong Zombie.
Exploding Zombie
A zombie that carries a bomb in his hands, explodes in a 3x3 area upon encountering a plant.- Action Bomb: Carries one in his hands to blow up your plants.
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Averted. His Almanac entry says that he doesn't even know Kungfu, despite living in Kungfu World.
- Cartoon Bomb: The bomb he carries seems to have the classic cartoon bomb design.
- Suicide Attack: His bomb exploding also kills him.
Gong Zombie
Bangs on his gong to summon 1-4 Exploding Zombies from the ground around him.- Critical Existence Failure: Averted. He can’t use his gong once he loses an arm.
- Mook Maker: Summons Exploding Zombies from the ground.
Swordsman Zombie
This monk zombie wields a sword that deals good damage.Nunchaku Zombie
The monk Version of Hammer Zombie. Carries Nunchucks that reflect projectiles just like Hammer Zombie. But also uses them as an attack.- Elite Mook: The elite version of Hammer Zombie.
- One-Hit Kill: Smacks plants off the lawn with his nunchucks in one hit.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Spins around his nunchucks to deflect projectiles.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: He cannot reflect lobbed shots.
Torch Monk Zombie
Monk version of Torch Kongfu Zombie. Spins multiple torches around in a wheel to instantly burn plants.
Drinking Monk Zombie
Monk version of Drinking Zombie. Drinks from his bottle after taking enough damage, which makes him faster and stronger. But also uses it as an attack, swinging it toward plants from range.
- Elite Mook: The elite version of Drinking Zombie.
- Lightning Bruiser: Drinking from his bottle makes him this.
- Power-Up Food: Every sip from his bottle will make him faster and more muscular.
- Turns Red: Drinks his bottle after taking enough damage, making him faster and stronger.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: He wants to eat the Player Character's brain and gains reddish eyes upon drinking from his bottle (which makes him more dangerous).
- Improvised Weapon: His bottle tied to a string, which he attacks with from range.
Imp Monk
An imp that flies over your defenses.
Admiral Helmet Zombie/Monk Helmet Zombie
A heavily armored Zombie on the same level as Knight Zombie.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Just like Knight, he is stronger than a buckethead.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: His helmet can be removed by Magnet-Shroom.
Knight Bronze
One of three Gargantuars in Kungfu World. This Gargantuar uses a chain to attack. Also uses it to hook to the sky and move to the least-defended lane with a massive jump.
Qigong Bronze
One of three Gargantuars in Kungfu World. He’s A Gargantuar who pulls in plants closer to the front of the lawn and summons more zombies around him.
- Composite Character: Is essentially a Gargantuar, with the abilities of both Qigong Zombie, and Gong Zombie. (but summons more than just Exploding Zombies)
Han Bronze
One of three Gargantuars in Kungfu World. This Gargantuar speeds up when close to defeat.
Blade-Wielding Hero
The final boss of Kungfu World. A large, armored zombie with a sword and shield.
Sky City
- Airborne Mook: Every enemy in the Sky City can fly. Before you feel like easily removing them with Blover or Hurrikale, these plants are not allowed in any of its levels.
- Ambiguous Time Period: It is not specified which historical period Sky City takes place. It is commonly thought to be in World War II due to the presence of air warfare and the Diesel Punk aesthetics.
- Life Meter: In Sky City, the Zombies aren’t trying to get inside your house, they’re trying to destroy it. Crazy Dave's ship where your house resides has a healthbar, and zombies will attempt to attack it.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: All the basic zombies are equipped with flamethrowers, and will attack your house using it. Oddly enough, they don't ever try to use it to burn the flying plants in their way.
- Ramming Always Works: Most of the larger aircraft have the capability to ram into your plants, dealing massive damage over time, and should they ram into the house they will deal massive damage to it and destroy themselves.
Zombie Fighter
An Imp that rides in on a small plane, using his machine gun to shoot plants and your house. If he reaches your house, he flies back into a different lane and keeps on shooting. If the Imp is killed via lobbed-shot plants, the fighter goes into a deadly charge.- More Dakka: Certainly, more than other zombies. He fires the gun on his plane constantly, until it's either destroyed or he falls off.
- Last Ditch Move: If defeated by a lobbed-ranged plant, the imp will fall off, but the plane will remain. The plane then quickly charges at the house, dealing massive damage to plants, and the house if it reaches it.
- Sniping the Cockpit: It's possible to do this by using a lobbed-shot plant to damage the Imp and knock him off. This is actually a bad idea as the fighter craft will then charge straight for your house, dealing huge damage to plants in its way and massive damage if it crashes into your house.
Double-Cabin Aircraft Zombie
Two zombie brothers in a large plane that takes up two lanes. Charges at the house at fast speeds, dealing massive damage to plants and the house they reach it.- Multiple Life Bars: To destroy them, you need to defeat both cockpits, each on a different lane.
Lightning Gun Zombie
An unusual zombie that fires electric plasma balls at plants. these shots have either positive or negative charges, each with different effects.- Damage Over Time: If a plant gets hit with two positive charges, the plant takes continuous damage until they die.
- Status Effects: Three of them, to be exact.
- Two positive charges gives Damage Over Time to the plant until it dies.
- Two negative charges stuns the plant for a few seconds.
- Both a positive and negative charge permanently slow down the plant.
- Status Infliction Attack: His attacks apply status effects to plants.
- The Paralyzer: If two negative charges hit a plant, the plant becomes stunned and can’t do anything for a few seconds.
- Lightning Gun: It's in his name!
- Static Stun Gun: Played with, his lightning gun only has this effect if two negative charges or a positive or negative charge hit the same plant, the former stuns it for a few seconds while the latter slows it permanently.
Missile Zombie
Fires a missile that can deal massive damage to the house. Instead of attacking them with plants, you have to swipe them away.- Big, Bulky Bomb: Fires a giant missile at your house to deal an incredible amount of damage to it.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: They can't be attacked or damaged by plants. Instead, you need to swipe them enough times to defeat them.
Arbiter-X
A zombie piloting a large arbiter plane that takes up 3 lanes. Creating a light that makes all zombies behind him invisible. (Effectively makes all zombies behind him invincible) Will ram the house, dealing massive damage.- Achilles' Heel: They have nearly as much health as a gargantuar, but by taking up three entire lanes and lacking Multiple Life Bars unlike Double Cabin Aircraft Zombie, they take three lanes worth of damage.
- No Self-Buffs: They fortunately cannot make themselves or other Arbiter-X invisible.
- Status Buff: Makes all zombies behind him invisible and practically invulnerable.
- Stealthy Mook: Isn't one by itself, but will make all zombies behind it into one. Stealthed zombies cannot be affected by attacks.
Flying Imp Zombie
Imps that parachute onto the house from Transport Boats, land on the back row to eat your plants from behind, and jumps off safely.- Dungeon Bypass: Parachutes to the back row of the house, to take out your defenses from behind.
Flying Gargantuar
A gargantuar in a robotic flying suit, carrying two imps. Punches plants in one hit, and smashes your house for lots of damage.Zombot Vulture Fighter
The final boss of Sky City. A zombot in the shape of a vulture.- Sequential Boss: Once it gets down to the last third of its health, the vulture bot loses its body and its cockpit goes to attack, changing its attacks into a deadly Bullet Hell move and an electrical barrier deployer.
- Vile Vulture: An Animal Mecha vulture piloted by Dr. Zomboss certainly isn't going to be friendly.
Steam Age
- Gay Nineties: The era takes place during the Industrial Revolution.
Gentlemen Zombie
A sharply dressed zombie that uses an umbrella to fly over plants.Furnace Zombie
This zombie has an explosive furnace on his back, and will explode upon the first plant he encounters. Cold/Ice/Chill attacks will decrease his temperature, fire attacks will increase it. The higher his temperature, the bigger his explosion radius will be.Coal Miner Zombie
Wheels in a wheelbarrow full of coal. Dumps his wheelbarrow on the first plant he encounters, killing them and leaving behind his wheelbarrow as a tough obstacle, which leaves behind coal that can’t be planted on for a few seconds. Renaissance Age
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Quite literally. The basic zombies of this world are Aristocrat Zombies, and every other zombie seems fairly high-class.
- The Late Middle Ages: Takes place during The Renaissance.
Perfume Zombie
A zombie that lobs bottles of perfume at plants, which creates a poison effect wherever it lands.- Percent Damage Attack: Her perfume bottles run on this, killing even the highest health plants at the same pace as normal health plants.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Wears a red and white one.
- Last Ditch Move: Her death results in her perfume bottle dropping on the floor, creating the poison effect in a 1x3 area.
Sculptor Imp
Imps that use an awl and hammer to chisel out zombies inside marble mounds.- Critical Existence Failure: Subverted, as he can't sculpt after he loses an arm.
Ballerina Zombie
A group of ballerina dancers who always come in groups of four.Leaper Zombie
This zombie has an old flying machine, which he uses to get over your plants.- Dungeon Bypass: Leaps over plants to get by.
Heian Age
- Jidaigeki: Of course, taking place during the Heian Period.
Firework Zombie
Holds a giant firework, which he sets off to set tiles on fire, and burn plants.- Percent Damage Attack: His flames run on this, killing even the highest health plants at the same pace as normal health plants.
- Playing with Fire: Uses a big firework to burn the plants.
Ninjimp
A Ninja imp. Throws pufferfish at plants to deal damage.- Sham Fu: Throws pufferfish at plants.
Sushi Chef Zombie
This zombie throws sushi on the ground, which gives all zombies around it a speed boost. Zombies that eat the sushi keep the speed boost for a few seconds.- Support Party Member: He moves slowly, mostly helping other zombies move faster.
- Supreme Chef: The almanac notes that, though not entirely a replacement for brains, the Sushi Chef's Zombie sushi is loved by his fellow zombies. In gameplay, the aroma of the sushi gives nearby zombies a speed boost.
Onmyoji Zombie
A zombie with a fan that pushes zombies forward by summoning wind. Summoning wind also summons a tornado a few seconds later, which will blow away the first plant hit by it.- Blow You Away: Summons wind and tornadoes to help zombies.
- One-Hit Kill: His tornados shove plants off the lawn, killing them instantly. Even instant plants aren't immune to this if you time them wrong.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Windbreak Dendrobium blocks the tornado effect, though at the cost of one of his leaves.
Mino Zombie
Uses a fish basket to steal plant food from the player.- Bandit Mook: Steals Plant Food and stores it in his basket.
Chinese Exclusives: Secret Realms
Fairytale Forest
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Fairytale Forest appears to have this aesthetic and theme.
Guardgantuar
The version of the Gargantuar in the Fairytale Forest. Not only does he have much higher health, it also drops his shield when he dies, blocking the attacks of plants.- Damage Reduction: Has 75% resistance against all forms of attack.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Not only does his shield grant him much higher health, he drops it on death, killing the plant on the tile he died on and blocking shots.
Red Queen Imp
The Imp of the Fairytale Forest, and typically doesn't spawn on her own. After getting dropped from a Gaurdgantuar or getting knocked back, she will flee, summoning three cavalry zombies in her place.- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After getting knocked back, she will start to run away, summoning three Cavalry Guard Zombies in her place.
Witch Zombie
Another variant of Wizard Zombie. Witch transforms plants into frogs, who then hop forward one space periodically.- Bewitched Amphibians: Unlike Wizard Zombie's sheep, Witch Zombie turns plants into frogs. The main difference is that frogs will periodically hop foreword one tile.
- Elite Mook: The (second) elite version of Wizard Zombie.
- One-Hit Kill: If they're not defeated, the transformed frogs will eventually hop off the lawn and won't come back.
Mirror Queen Zombie
The final boss of Fairytale Forest. Mirror Queen throws apples to make poison plants and make them sleep, summon Cavalry Zombies, and makes mirrors which duplicate the zombies who walk through them. Haunting Halloween
- Halloween Episode: Obviously. The limited time world only comes around every October.
Pumpkin Knight Zombie
An undying knight who refuses defeat. Pumpkin Knight Zombie serves as the final boss of Haunting Halloween, summoning Pumpkin Ghosts to attack plants, and riding on a horse to move faster in his second phase.- Headless Horseman: Very obviously supposed to be this game's take on the Headless Horseman.
Pumpkin Ghost
Ghosts summoned by Pumpkin Knight Zombie that fly towards plants to stun and damage them. Celebreating Chinese New Year
- New Year Has Come: A whole limited-time event world themed around the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Money Tree Zombie
Nian Beast Zombie
Other game modes (Arena, Penny's Pursuit, Thymed Events)
Arena
Zombie Hamster Ball
A giant hamster ball that zombies can ride in. It allows them to quickly crush plants while providing a massive amount of protection and immunity to negative statuses.- Asteroids Monster: When destroyed, it'll release the zombie that was inside.
- Lethal Joke Item: How dangerous can a zombie in a huge hamster ball be? As it turns out, very.
- Lightning Bruiser: It moves faster than an Excavator, crushes plants even faster than a Barrel Roller, and can survive an instant kill. It does get slower for each plant it kills, however.
- Mook Mobile: Almost any zombie can ride in this allowing them to steamroll the plants in front.
- No-Sell: It's completely immune to any negative status save for Knock Back. This includes chilling, freezing, slowing, stunning (via butter or gas), poison, shrinking, and even Caulipower hypnosis.
- One-Hit Kill: Appears to instantly destroy plants on contact, but it actually deals incredible damage over time.
- Rolling Attack: Allows the zombie inside to flatten your plants by rolling over them quickly.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Thanks to being a rolling enemy, Spikeweed, Spikerocks and Cactus will destroy the Hamster Ball in one shot.
Cardio Zombie
A Zombie running on a cardio treadmill. It doesn't attack the player's house and will stop at column 7, but will instead throw brains at fellow zombies to significantly buff them.- Brain Food: Throws brains at zombies to permanently give them a health and speed buff.
- Fitness Nut: The Cardio Zombie is a muscular zombie who is always running on a treadmill and throws boosting brains at other zombies. His Almanac entry lampshades his healthy lifestyle and even has him comment that the other zombies should be more health conscious.Almanac: Cardio Zombie is all about health, healthiness and healthy lifestyles. He refuses to consume carbs, downing nothing but high-protein brains for every meal. In his opinion, other zombies really need to up their game. NO EXCUSES!
- One-Hit Kill: Any plant in his treadmill's way is crushed very quickly.
- Status Buff: Zombies he throws brains to get a permanent boost in health and speed.
- Support Party Member: He doesn't attempt to attack your house, but the brains he throws will give zombies a health and speed buff.
- Top-Heavy Guy: For all his muscle, he's seemingly skipped leg day, judging by his short, skinny legs.
#caketank
A giant cake full of zombies. Reveals surprises as it takes damage. These surprises are a hypnotized Super-Fan Imp in the second lane (first layer), two hypnotized Birthdayz Jester Zombies in the third and fifth lanes, a sun, a silver coin, and a gem (third layer) and finally a half a dozen imps that die instantly.- Helpful Mook: As it takes damage, its layers blow off and release zombies onto the lawn... and those zombies are hypnotized, meaning they fight for you.
- Mook Maker: When it takes enough damage to lose layers, it spawns zombies... that are hypnotized and fight for the player.
- One-Hit Kill: Any plant it runs over will be instantly crushed.
- Shows Damage: It loses layers as it takes damage.
- Stone Wall: Aside from instantly crushing any plant in its way to the 6th column, the #caketank has absolutely no attacks. The zombies it spawns when its layers are destroyed are hypnotized to fight for the player.
Ancient Rome
- Ancient Grome: These zombies are themed after Ancient Greece and Rome.
- Developer's Foresight: If the Snap Pea eats Zombie Medusa and spits out her head, any zombies near the point of impact will be turned into stone obstacles.
- Medusa: The Zombie Medusa, who is capable of turning any zombies facing her into stone obstacles. Thankfully, her petrification doesn't affect plants, and if the Snap Pea eats her and spits out her head, it'll turn any zombies near the point of impact into stone obstacles too.
- Mini-Boss: The Roman Caesar Zombie has massive amounts of health, more than a Gargantuar, and has a few devastating capabilities that will aid the zombies and hinder the plants.
- Mook Maker: The Zcorpion enemies launch pots that contain zombies at your plants.
- Mook Medic: Healer Zombies will heal zombies for a great amount of health while curing any negative status effects (including hypnotism). Even their Almanac Entry outright states that you should Shoot the Medic First.
- Obvious Rule Patch: The Zombie Medusa and Healer Zombie have the abilities to counter the otherwise-overpowered Caulipower, by being immune to hypnotization plus either curing it or turning hypnotized zombies into tough obstacles.
- One-Hit Kill:
- The Zombie Medusa pushes a petrified zombie obstacle that crushes plants similar to Troglobite's iceblocks and Arcade Zombie's arcade machine. She also instantly kills zombies or zomboids that are facing her by turning them into stone obstacles.
- When the Healer Zombie is killed, he drops his staff, which will instantly kill any plant, zomboid or hypnotized zombie on its tile.
- No-Sell: Zombie Medusa and Healer Zombie are immune to hypnotization, poison, stunning that isn't freeze or butter,
- Shoot the Medic First: The Healer Zombie's Almanac entry outright tells the player to kill it first if they don't want things to suck:Almanac: Hot tip: take this one out as fast as you can if you don't want your life turned into a pit of abject misery and despair.
- Taken for Granite: The Zombie Medusa is capable of petrifying other zombies or zomboids that are facing her, transforming them into stone obstacles and turning attempts at hypnotizing the horde against the player. Her head when spat out by Snap Pea will also do the same.
ZCorp
- Ambiguous Time Period: It is hard to estimate where these zombies are from a specific timeline, whether it's takes place at the same time like the Modern Day zombies, or being a case of Present-Day Past.
- Begin with a Finisher: ZCorp Chair Racers enter the lawn with a speeding swivel chair, dealing incredible damage to the first plant it hits and launching him into your defenses. After that, he loses his chair and eats about as fast as most normal zombies.
- Improbable Weapon User: ZCorp HelpDesks throw their exploding laptops at plants to deal incredible amounts of damage, although they can only use this once.
- Pushy Mooks: ZCorp Consultants push zombies in their lane into other lanes, disrupting your offensive strategies.
- Russian Reversal: The Head Office Impgantuar is a giant Imp, while the Gargimp Legal it throws is a tiny Gargantuar, meaning that in ZCorp, Imps throw Gargantuars.
- Swivel-Chair Antics: ZCorp Chair Racer rides a swivel chair, which he uses to run into your plants for massive damage.
Backyard Big Top
- Ambiguous Time Period: It's hard to figure out where does these circus based zombies are from, but from their looks alone could mean they're from the late 1800s and early 1900s at best.
- Always Identical Twins: Subverted with Carnie Imp Twins, who look like identical twins rather than fraternal ones. Despite this and their name, their Almanac entry reveals they actually aren't twins.
- Anti-Magic: The Magician Zombie is immune to Enchant-Mint plants, meaning that he can't be hypnotized by Hypno-Shroom/Caulipower or turned into a shroom by Witch Hazel.
- Asteroids Monster: When Carnie Imp Twins are killed, they split forwards into adjacent lanes in a manner similar to Barrel Roller's Barrel.
- Breath Weapon: The Firebreather zombie uses fire breath to take out plants from a distance.
- Conjoined Twins: Subverted with Carnie Imp Twins. Their name suggests they're twins, they look like identical twins, seem to be attached to each other, and are part of a circus-themed eventnote . However, not only does their Almanac entry confirm they aren't twins, their texture sheet and the fact they split ways after taking enough damage show they aren't attached to each other.
- Dungeon Bypass: Stiltwalker zombies bypass most plants including Tall-Nut and are immune to knockback when their stilts are intact.
- Human Cannonball: Well, Zombie Cannonball. The Carnie Imp is fired out from a cannon that appears at the right side of the lawn, and thanks to his helmet he has much more health than a normal Imp.
- Lightning Bruiser: Firebreather Zombie has a generous amount of health, moves very quickly, and his fire breath attack deals incredible damage to any plants in his way.
- Long-Range Fighter: Firebreather Zombie attacks from a 3-square distance away, allowing it to counter most melee plants.
- One-Hit Kill: The Magician Zombie's doves can take your plants away just like how the Zombie Parrot does, except much quicker.
- Pesky Pigeons: One of the Magician Zombie's tricks is to spawn doves from his hat, which fly over to your plants and very quickly attempt to abduct them.
- Stage Magician: The Magician Zombie. He can use three different tricks, one teleports other zombies forwards, one teleports himself forwards, and the last spawns a flock of doves from his hat that can take your plants away.
- Support Party Member: Magician Zombie can teleport groups of other zombies forwards or summon doves to take away your plants.
