Demonic Spiders / Plants vs. Zombies

PopCap Games was always good at making cephalopods huge threats.

"I hate those confounded bungees!!! I hate them with a passion. And a vengeance. A whoop-a-dee-doo! Here come those idiots now!"

— Crazy Dave, expressing his hatred for Bungee Zombies

I know your type: hard, fast, and strong, you wanna make the player's strategy all wrong, and then make them throw their device at a wall that's near.^note NOOOOOOOO!

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Plants vs. Zombies

Normal Game:

• Pole Vaulting and Dolphin Rider Zombies can be EXTREMELY infuriating, especially the latter with how stupidly fast they move when riding their dolphin. Their abilities render defensive plants like Wall-nut and Garlic useless. Take this advice: Tall-nut is your friend — he is too tall for them to clear and they’ll have to stop there. Or just place a cheap plant in front to force them to jump.
• Normally, when a Lawn Mower/Pool Cleaner/Roof Cleaner is used, no Zombies will spawn in that row for a while. This only applies to Zombies spawned at the beginning of the lane, not summoned Backup Dancer Zombies more than happy to screw you over at the last second and certainly not zombies dropped by Bungee Zombies at the final wave of each Rooftop level.
• Zombonis. Tough bastards that cannot be slowed by Snow Peas and Winter-melons, nor can they be stopped by Ice-shrooms or Kernel-pults' butter. They squash all your plants in the way and they are freaking fast! To top it off, they leave an unplantable ice trail that needs to be melted with a jalapeno (though it disappears on its own after a short period) and said ice trail causes bobsled zombies to appear. Thankfully, Spikeweed and Spikerocks will finish them off in one hit should they run over one... except God help you if they begin to appear on a roof level, since you can't place Spikeweeds or Spikerocks in Flower Pots
• The Jack-in-the-Box Zombie can instantly destroy your defenses, including Spikerocks, which otherwise take 9 hits from a Gargantuar or vehicle to die. It doesn't help that they move fairly quickly, though these zombies can also work in your favor, as their explosions can take out other zombies as well. They are even worse in Vasebreaker mode, especially Endless, since they instantly explode if you happen to break the vase they were hiding in. This destroys all vases in a 3x3 grid around them, potentially releasing dangerous zombies or exposing valuable plants before you are prepared. Their explosions also no longer harm zombies, so you can't even use them to your advantage anymore. Oh, and two non-Endless levels from Vasebreaker have several of them at once, fittingly named "Chain Reaction" and "Another Chain Reaction", respectively.
• Pogo Zombies are similar to the Pole Vaulting and Dolphine Rider Zombie, but have the additional annoyance of not losing their pogo stick after the first jump (whereas Pole Vaulters and Dolphin Riders can only jump once), meaning if you don't have any Tall-nuts or Magnet-shrooms, they can jump right over your entire line of defense. Think you're in the clear because your Magnet-Shroom removed the pogo stick? Better hope you can finish it off fast before it eats something, since it'll inevitably be past every defensive plant you set up by that point (unless you covered everything in Pumpkins). To make matters worse, they first appear during the fog levels and if you don't bring Torchwood/Plantern/Blover you won't be able to see them coming. Also, the first time they appear the Magnet-shroom hasn't been provided yet. Hope you put Tall-nut in time or bring insta-kill plants!
• Gargantuars are large, powerful zombies that can instantly kill any plant (except the Spikerock), are able to take a TON of damage, can survive instant-kill plants, and can deploy a small, albeit weaker zombie deep into your defenses. They can also break vases in Vasebreaker mode, messing up your pace and releasing even more zombies if they catch you unprepared. Fortunately for you, they are kind of slow...
  • Giga-Gargantuars are even worse. They take the normal Gargantuars' already massive health pool and kick it up to several notches, and have crazed red eyes. Notably, they were put into Survival: Endless because the regular ones were too easy for early play. At least you don't have to worry about them anywhere else.

I, Zombie:

• Magnet-shrooms. They take away buckets, mining picks, ladders, and football helmets, making many of your tougher and more expensive zombies get easily decimated.
  • If timed right, one can actually use this to their advantage by sending in a Digger Zombie at the exact moment, so that the Magnet-Shroom "refreshes" and takes his pickaxe away just as he reaches the end of the lawn, giving him an easy Dungeon Bypass to the brains.
• Starfruit and Threepeaters can attack other columns/rows, providing extra firepower and easily screwing up your imps should you choose to send them down a (seemingly) harmless row.
• Kernel-pults, due to their random chance of throwing butter that stuns your zombies, can become these should the Random Number God choose to be nasty and cause them to constantly chuck butter. Coupled with snow peas that slow your zombies from reaching them, and you may have a nightmare on your hands. And woe to be you if your zombie happens to stand on the Spikeweed while stunned or deal with two Kernel-pults at once.

Plants vs. Zombies 2

In general:

• If you thought the first game was too easy, this one introduces a lot of annoying new enemies, as you'll see as you read on. Some are possible to handle, while others just grind on players' nerves.
• Gargantuars in general move much faster and can absorb more damage than in the first game, making them even more dangerous.

Ancient Egypt:

• Explorer Zombies. They're not very resilient, but are fast, can one-hit-kill your plants and can be extremely dangerous if they hide behind a more resilient zombie. Though they are less effective when using an ice plant, as it takes out the flames and forces them to eat plants instead of burning them.
• The Pharaoh Zombie when first encountered has a very resilient sarcophagus that's tougher than a Buckethead Zombie's bucket. To make things worse, after the sarcophagus breaks he turns from being a Mighty Glacier into a Fragile Speedster/Glass Cannon, usually right next to your plants due to the sarcophagus' durability, to boot. Even worse is that prior to the 5.9.1 update, the sarcophagus used to be counted as its own entity, meaning that the Pharaoh Zombie could survive insta-kill plants. This aspect was fortunately removed with said update.
• Tomb Raiser Zombies. Every once in a while, they toss two bones that create tombstones, and can toss up to 6 per zombie. If not dealt with in time, they will slowly fill your lawn with tombstones, making it impossible to plant anything. If you aren't using lobbed-shot or piercing plants, the tombstones will soak damage for the zombies, allowing them to get some distance by the time (if even) they can shoot them. If you are using lobbed-shot plants, they will ignore the graves, making planting anything near-impossible.
• The Torchlight Zombie is a deadlier version of the Explorer Zombie. Not only does he have more health, but he's also about twice as fast, meaning that he can easily tear a huge line of destruction with ease. Thankfully, ice plants will put out his flames, just like with Explorer Zombie.

Pirate Seas:

• The Barrel Roller Zombie is fast-moving and pushes a barrel that deals ridiculously fast damage to any plant it comes across^note Except Spikeweed and Spikerock, but Spikeweed is destroyed by a single one, and Spikerock's durability is massively nerfed compared to the first game. and is as tough as a bucket making it hard to destroy with peas before they flatten your whole garden. When the barrel finally breaks, it spits out two Imps into your defenses on adjacent lanes. Fortunately, penetrating plants and lobbed shots can kill them rapidly, as the roller himself has low health.

Wild West:

• Chicken Wrangler Zombies. After they've taken a couple of damage points, they release a flock of weak but extremely fast-moving and fast-eating Zombie Chickens into their row and the two adjacent, who Zerg Rush your plants. Lightning Reeds will kill them very effectively, but if they attack on a Lock and Load level where you aren't allowed to use them, or on Big Bad Butte if you haven't received them or other penetrating plants yet, they're a serious hazard.
• Pianist Zombies. It causes zombies to switch lanes, which can mess up with your strategy. They can also deal ridiculously fast damage to plants like Barrel Roller Zombies. Thankfully they also have the same weakness as Barrel Zombies and are much slower. Also, they'll only affect cowboy zombies which makes their appearance in Modern Day a lot less dangerous. And their tune is catchy.
• Zombie Bulls become frustrating in levels with a flower line. Whenever the bull encounters a plant, he will throw his Zombie Bull Rider, and if that lands on your flower line it's an instant loss. They've also got a very good amount of health and initial fast speed, which means that if you don't have a Tall-nut in the correct lane to block the Imp, it's highly likely they'll be able to throw them into your defences or flower line.
• The Rodeo Legend Zombie is an upgrade to the Zombie Bull and it's even more deadly. It's slightly tougher but far faster than the Zombie Bull and deals a great amount of damage to the first plant it meets when charging before throwing the Imp as usual, although a strong enough wall can still survive it. Secondly, unlike the Zombie Bull, it's capable of performing its charge attack again after a period of time (minus the imp).

Frostbite Caves:

• The Sloth Gargantuar. What's more annoying than a Gargantuar throwing an imp into your defences? How about one that can throw up to three, each one thrown as he loses health?
• Weasel Hoarder Zombies. She presents problems similar to Chicken Wranglers above, but the Ice Weasels released after her log armor breaks are slightly slower moving but significantly tougher (Ironically enough, Lightning Reeds won't kill them fast enough, but many penetrating plants that are too slow-firing to kill Chickens before being Zerg Rushed to death will deal with the slower Weasels). The really nasty bit, though, is on later Icebound Battleground levels, where the freezing winds may freeze your plants just as a pack of weasels is released, leading to instant lawnmower loss or death.

Lost City:

• Excavator Zombies. They're fast and fairly tough, they straight up No-Sell projectiles to the front due to their shovels, they can't have their shovels stolen via Magnet-shroom (which makes sense- gold is not magnetic), and use said shovels to dig up your plants (including Spikeweed/rocks), screwing over your defences easily since your defensive plants will be near the back or worse, thrown off the lawn. Lobbed shot plants, melee plants and penetrating plants are required... and the former are countered by the Parasol Zombie, while the second are at risk of being dug up while in range.

Far Future:

• All of the large robots in general can withstand instant-kills more than once and most of them have very nasty abilities. You WILL need that E.M.Peach.
  • Gargantuar Prime. If not killed fast, their Eye Beams can lay waste to your entire garden. It got so bad that the 3.1 update nerfed the rate of fire of its Eye Beams, and ended its particularly unpleasant ability to fire Eye Beams before it got onto the screen. While it's much slower and has an added vulnerability to the E.M.Peach, it doesn't help as much when there's a lot of them using their lasers to kill random plants.
  • The Robo-Cone has obscenely high health, being able to survive an instant-kill plant and even most Plant Food abilities. Once it reaches your plants (which it probably will), it also eats quickly, being able to remove your defences fast. The only good news is that it's rather slow.
  • The Disco-tron 3000 constantly summons Disco Jetpack Zombies. Unlike the Dancing Zombie who can only have four summoned mooks at a time, this one can summon an infinite amount of them. Better have a Blover ready if you don't want to be overrun. There's also an out-of-universe problem with it on Android, as if you get too many Disco Jetpack Zombies on the screen at once the game is very liable to crash.
  • The Mecha-Football Zombie. Unlike the Robo-Cone, it doesn't eat but pushes back rows of plants, screwing up your layout and eliminating your back row, and it's also faster than the Robo-Cone.
• Blastronaut Zombies. Take the Jetpack Zombie, give it around twice the health, make it almost as fast as an Ice Weasel, and you get this. Not only can it easily fly over your defences at a very fast rate, but it is very durable for a Flighty-speed zombie to boot. Thankfully, the Blover and Hurrikale get rid of it... but in the level the Blastronaut debuts in, you're prohibited from using Blover and Hurrikale, and the second Far Future boss will also love spamming these guys on you faster than you can obtain Blovers. Hope you got Infi-nut's barrier up!

Dark Ages:

• The Jester Zombie. He's a Lightning Bruiser that's considerably tougher and faster than your average zombie, being as tough as a Conehead but faster. Since he's considered just a standard zombie, he can pop up from graves, which may happen behind your line of plants. But the kicker is that he's immune to projectiles, and in fact returns them, which can mess up your defenses badly. This also makes him the only case where Cherry Bomb is a preferable option to Grapeshot, as Grapeshot's grapes are affected as well, causing them to roll into your defenses and take out more than a few plants. He thus causes Character Select Forcing for the player to use penetrating, non-projectile plants, with the only projectile plants capable of hurting him being Magnifying Grass, Draftodil (which has the added effect of stunning him), and Power Vine.
• The Zombie King can turn any peasant zombies near him into extra-tough Knight Zombies. If not taken out quickly or you didn't bring any plants that can either hypnotize the minions^note Bonus if said minion can be granted a helm, making this a Hoist by His Own Petard, poison the minions^note Since the poison ignores armor, or summon your own minions via Zoybean Pod or Turkey-pult, he can create a huge rush of Knights. The biggest problem is that taking him out is easier said than done, as he rests in the back column, and with several high-health zombies in front of him, nothing save for a Laser Bean or too-close-for-comfort Fume-shroom will get the chance to hit him.
• The Wizard Zombie turns more of your plants into useless sheep the longer he's on the screen (and can actually start firing transformation beams before he gets onto the screen and plants start attacking him), and often needs to be specifically targeted with one-hit-kill plants because his slow movement means that tough zombies get ahead of him and shield him from ballistic plants. He comes in such large numbers that a single wave of them can easily turn an entire lawn into sheep, unless the player has a One-Hit Kill on hand. He also destroys any chance of a defensive strategy, as waiting for him to approach will end up turning more plants into sheep. However, he's actually less dangerous in Highway to the Danger Room, thanks to being spawned in the middle of the lawn, vulnerable to your plants. He's also one of the few zombies who have been nerfed, no longer being able to turn plants into sheep if he's offscreen. He can also be a Helpful Mook in "Save Our Seeds" or "Don't Lose X Plants levels," as getting a plant turned into a sheep does not count as losing one, and sheep are invulnerable to zombie attacks, so letting him turn endangered plants into sheep can be a good strategy.

Neon Mixtape Tour:

• The special Zombies all gain a very dangerous ability whenever their Jam plays. Or if they're fought in Modern Day, in which case they don't even need their Jam. Also, if you do hypnotize them, they are absolutely useless even when their own jam comes up:
  • Punk Zombies. They've only got the same amount of health as an Explorer, but when their Punk Jam comes up, they move very quickly and begin kicking plants back to the nearest space behind and off the lawn if there's no space. Without penetrating plants (or with Glitter Zombie's rainbow protection for Modern Day), he'll more likely than not kick your front plants. A Magnet-Shroom can instantly off one thanks to the metal piercings in their heads.
  • Glitter Zombies. When their Pop Jam plays they create a rainbow trail that makes all zombies in it completely damn immune to damage and harm (yes, that includes freezing and stunning/slowing), which is very dangerous especially if there are Bucketheads or Gargantuars behind. Even worse, they also get the ability to kill any plant they run over with their roller skates (ala Barrel Roller and Piano). They also have a good bit of health too, around that of a conehead.
  • MC Zom-B. He has low health like Punk, but when his Rap Jam starts playing he gains an Spin Attack with his mic that hits almost all plants around him, and is an instant-death on anything less than a Wall-Nut (which doesn't fare better, dying in two hits). This makes him very dangerous in early waves especially due to his fast speed, or if one uses lots of close-range plants. Without penetrating plants or with rainbow protection/Breakdancer backup, he can get deep into your defences to wreak havoc. It gets even worse in Modern Day, where Neon Mixtape Tour portals spawn him right smack in the middle of your plants where he will destroy them almost immediately.
  • Hair Metal Gargantuar: When his Metal music plays, each smash he does also sends out a sound shockwave that instakills the first plant it hits. And yes, he can keep using this long-ranged move as long as his Jam is playing, devastating your entire row! The only defence against it? Infi-nut's projector, which absorbs the shots even when the nut is "dead", and Primal Wall-Nuts, which can survive three blasts. Hair Metal Gargantuar is particularly even more dangerous in the Endless Zone, where, unlike the other Gargantuars, he can show up as your first enemy when you're still trying to set up your sun production, much less defenses. Going into a high level Greatest Hits without several Game-Breaker lined up can easily spell instant loss.
  • Breakdancer Zombie gains the ability to breakdance, move quickly, and push zombies forward 1.5 squares during a Rap Jam, allowing him to send the Glass Cannon MC Zom-B and the Hair Metal Gargantuar towards your defences fast. Combined with MC Zom-B's spinning microphone attack during the Rap Jam, the duo can easily wreak havoc on your defences. He may have low health, but he will not be a main target of most plants thanks to kicking other zombies forwards to shield him. Worst of all, he can kick forward other Breakdancers, essentially becoming a high-speed relay system! Also, it acts as a pseudo-counter to the Thyme Warp if one doesn't have a Blover on hand, since using it would mean he'll be guaranteed to kick all the zombies in his lane back forward (especially if there's more than one Breakdancer in that lane).
  • Arcade Zombie during his 8-bit Jam. Like the Imp Porter's Tent, he begins spawning 8-bit zombies in regular, conehead and buckethead variants from his arcade machine. Worse still, unlike the stationary tents, he also pushes the machines forwards during the Jam crushing plants in his way ala Troglobite, and making him able to spawn bucketheads very near your house.

Jurassic Marsh:

• The Jurassic Gargantuar is significantly tougher than the other Gargantuar variants in this game, entering the board with 5400 health instead of 3600^note For comparison, the Electric Blueberry deals 5000 normal damage shots per attack.. Thankfully, this Gargantuar variant is slower than the others, so your plants have more time to damage it, and the Primal Peashooter excels at knocking it back. Charmed dinosaurs can also do a lot of damage to him.
• The Jurassic Bully can soak up huge amounts of damage, and is immune to Primal Peashooter's Knock Back, allowing him and any other zombies behind to advance forwards slowly thanks to him absorbing the knockback. While this wouldn't be a huge problem in any other world, he appears in Jurassic Marsh, where the dinosaurs will push him forwards very quickly. Chard Guard and Hurrikale are pretty much needed should the dinosaurs push him to the third column.
• If one thought the Bully was bad enough, there's the Jurassic Rockpuncher in the extra-tough bonus levels. For one, he's able to survive an instant kill. Although he's slower than the Bully, he still has the Bully's immunity to knockback, but unlike the Bully, he doesn't eat plants, instead using the rocks on his fist to One-Hit Kill plants and leave behind a temporary unplantable crater. Essentially, he's a weaker Gargantuar with immunity to Primal Peashooter's knockback who can't be stalled indefinitely via cheap plants such as Puff-Shroom. And God help you if any of the dinosaurs get him past your defenses.

Big Wave Beach:

• Surfer Zombies. They're very fast on water, have a good bit of health, cannot be blocked by any plant^note with the exception of Infi-nut's barrier, and even then they can still destroy both the Infi-nut and barrier if they're blocked on the same row as the Infi-nut., and then when they get on land they plonk their surfboard on the first plant they reach (or if they are killed on land), instantly killing the plant they lands on and also creating an obstruction with a good bit of health. They can overrun your defenses easily if you let them get to land. Essentially, they combine the nastiest features of the Explorer and Tomb Raiser Zombies while also being fast. If that's not bad enough, Modern Day has Big Wave Beach portals that spawn them in the middle of the lawn... which means that unless you have a way to remove them with the surfboard (or destroy the surfboard), expect a plant to be lost.
• Octo Zombies. Like the Wizard Zombie, they can make a plant useless and eventually the whole field if not removed in time, this time by throwing an octopus to bind your plants up. Unlike wizards, Octo Zombies are tougher, and their octopi (which can take quite a beating) have to be killed to render the plants usable- killing the zombie will not remove them! If they manage to bind one lane of plants in octopi including the rearmost one, it's near-impossible to get that lane unbound by killing the rearmost octopi without use of an instant or Split Pea. Unlike the Wizard Zombie, a plant captured by an octopus does count as destroyed, meaning that they're even more annoying on "Save Our Seeds" and "Don't lose X plants levels." The worst part? There's no single plant in your arsenal that's a reliable counter to them. The only halfway decent one is Rotobaga (since it doesn't need a lilypad, and can free up plants on any lane), and you don't get her until very late through Frostbite Caves, which used to be after Big Wave Beach before the update that arranged the worlds' order from easiest to hardest.
• Fisherman Zombies. They float at the end of a field in the ocean and have a good amount of health (almost twice that of a Conehead Zombie). However, they can use their poles to drag plants closer to them, until they drop into the water, or they throw them off-screen when the plant is next to them (the latter only happens if one plants Lily Pads on the entire row, or if the plant can float on water). They also have a tendency to come with the aforementioned Octo Zombies and Surfer Zombies, meaning that you'll often be left defenseless with not enough Sun to turn the situation around. The only counter to their fishing hooks? The forcefield of a boosted Infi-nut or Moonflower. Have fun!

Modern Day:

• The Newspaper Zombie took serious levels in badass in this game. Not only does his newspaper now absorb an incredible amount of damage, when it's gone he goes into his Turns Red mode... which, unlike the first game, is super fast, moving at Zombie Chicken speed, eating plants in less than half a second, and destroying defensive plants in less than five. The worse part? Him and the newspaper are now considered as one entity, so piercing plants and lobbed-shot plants won't even work on him as well anymore.
• The levels which have Octo Zombies manage to make them even more dangerous and device-smashingly annoying than they were in Big Wave Beach, by giving them the ability to throw octopi onto any front-most plant on the screen, not just ones in the same row as them. The icing on the cake is that they're also one of the special zombies that appear the most often, present in 5 of the 27 regular levels (along with the Surfer Zombie) while most others get 3-4 appearances max.
• Boombox Zombie can be a boon at times in his home world, due to his ability to slow the zombies and disable their Jams, but it does stun almost all plant types except Phat Beet and low-lying plants for a short while. Furthermore, he needs to walk onto the third column to the right or further in to play his music. Not so in Modern Day's Endless Zone, where Neon Mixtape Tour Portals can spawn him on column 6, allowing him to play his music almost immediately as soon as he spawns from them, instantly neutralizing your offenses and allowing All-Star zombies to rampage all over them. Spikeweeds/Spikerocks are nearly useless as the portals will toss them away from the opening, while Phat Beet's close range means it gets destroyed by several other portal zombies like Explorer. The only plant that is faster on the draw and can reliably toast him before he can play his music is 2-3 columns of Pyre Vine, and that's only if they're at maximum level with some points in Mastery.
• If you thought Football Zombie was a pain in the first game, he's even worse in here as the All-Star Zombie. He might have less health, but now he can oneshot most plants he runs into dealing a Gargantuar Smash's worth of damage. Combined with his extremely fast initial speed and you have a nightmare on your hands. Even worse, he can kick the Super-Fan Imp far into your defences, which then blows up with the plant on the square it's on. While he's easily stopped by Primal Wall-Nut and completely neutralized by Explode-O-Nut, it isn't much in Endless Zones where he comes charging in great numbers.
• The Sunday Edition Zombie is similar to the Newspaper Zombie, only that he's faster when not enraged and has a far tougher newspaper.

Arena/Penny's Pursuit/Thymed Events:

• In Arena, the Zombie Hamster Ball effectively turns any zombie into a faster, deadlier Barrel Roller by having a giant amount of health (enough to survive an instant kill) while making them move very quickly as well as crushing plants quickly (but becoming slower when they do). Unlike Barrel Rollers, there's no weak roller to target, and it will release the zombie inside when destroyed — ranging from weak browncoats to mighty Gargantuars to many other zombies on the list here. Finally, the Hamster Ball is also immune to several negative status effects such as stunning, slowing, freezing, and even hypnosis from Caulipower. Thankfully, it still retains Barrel Roller's weakness to spikes and will instantly shatter if it encounters Spikeweed, Spikerocks, or an underground Cactus. There's also a variant that's considerably slower than the usual one, but can change lanes at will, especially to avoid your many methods to counter it. Have fun trying to stop if when there are also Excavator Zombies scooping off your spikeweeds.
• Miniboss, or general, zombies have more health than even a Jurassic Gargantuar, especially the ones that appear near the end of an Arena or Penny's Pursuit level. Most also come with several capabilities that give the plants a bad day:
  • The Cardio Zombie. When he arrives, he instantly flattens any three plants that are on his way, and while he's on the field, he throws Brains to other zombies, which are even worse than the evil potions in Dark Ages, as they massively ramp up their health and speed and make them all but impossible to kill except with instant-kill plants or some ridiculously-damaging synergies of plants. The Cardio Zombie will eventually leave even if he will return later, but if you're desperate to remove him sooner? Well, tough luck; he has about twice as much health as the Jurassic Gargantuar and a complete immunity to lawnmowers, and he's not targeted by plants like Caulipower. Thanks to his insane health pool, he can completely screw over non-piercing plants, or worse, plants who single out a zombie until it dies (such as Lightning Reed's and Squash's plant food power-up) who will be stuck wasting time attacking Cardio Zombie while his hyberbuffed zombies rip apart the lawn.
  • The Roman Caesar Zombie. Imagine if the Zombie King, the Octo Zombie, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex combined into one being, and then give it three times the health of a Jurassic Gargantuar, and you got yourself an absolute tank of a zombie. He can't attack your house, similarly to the Cardio Zombie, but what he can do is promote zombies to the already tanky Centurion Zombies, as well as toss ranch sauce at plants, turning them into Caesar salads, which not only stuns them a la Octo Zombie, but also speeds up all zombies in its lane. Higher-leveled versions of this can also summon Roman Shield Zombies, which are basically much, much resilient versions of Camel Zombies that can also sometimes block lobbed projectiles. While, again, he can't reach the house and leaves after a while, what he does leave behind is a mess of a lawn that will most likely be overrun with the souped-up zombies.
  • Z-Mechs are more annoying than dangerous in Arena, but straight-up dangerous in Penny's Pursuit, especially on higher difficulties. They can kill plants with targeting missiles, summon Imp Bots and Blastronauts, and most importantly warp zombies forward, which is obnoxious in Arena but lethal in Penny's Pursuit, especially if Gargantuars or other dangerous zombies were sent forwards.
  • The miniboss version of the Zombie Yeti, also known as the Joust Yeti. Unlike the others it has no fancy tricks, just a megaton of health, the capability of moving forwards towards your house and eating plants very quickly, while also being entirely immune to knockback. It will retreat like the Yeti only after it has taken a lot of damage, but that's cold comfort when it's likely to have torn a path through the lane for other zombies behind to take advantage of.
• Zcorpions are much more dangerous Imp Cannons since they can singlehandedly overrun a lane. Instead of imps, they shoot basics, Coneheads, Bucketheads, or even Healer Zombies. It's entirely a Luck-Based Mission whether or not you will survive, as if they decide to chuck a bunch of Bucketheads back to back, and since they aim directly for your plants, you could potentially face Bucketheads only a couple of tiles away from the house. It's nearly impossible to block them off since their shots also deal huge damage to plants and smash non-defensive plants instantly. It's very telling how deadly these ballistas are when certain Penny's Pursuit levels' Zom-be-gone targets Zcorpions instead of Gargantuars and other dangerous zombies.
• The Gladiator Gargantuar has as much health as the Jurassic Gargantuar, but unlike him, Gladiator Gargantuar is just as fast as a regular Gargantuar. Furthermore, his thrown Imp nets the plant he lands on, temporarily taking the plant out of the battle and allowing the Imp to wreak havoc on your second column.
• The Healer Zombie. It was as if the developers purposefully designed him to be a rage-inducer; he heals a significant amount of health to make zombies nigh-immortal. And if you even think about killing him first, well, you're in a tough time. He has stupid amounts of HP and Creeper speed (which is just slow enough for the healer to hide behind most other zombies), while also being immune to most debuffs. Worst of all, he gets rid of other zombies' debuffs when healing, including shrinkage and hypnosis. And when killed, he drops a staff that one-shots the plant it lands on and continues to heal until it's destroyed too. It's telling that his Almanac entry's Flavor Text is devoid of humor, and simply tells the player to "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".
• Head Office Impgantuars are Gargantuar-sized Imps that have a lot less health than Gargantuars... but the Gargimp Legal they throw is the real threat. An Imp-sized Gargantuar that hits extremely hard with a wooden bat instead of eating, and has five times the health of a basic Imp, sent right to your third column to very likely destroy the plant there and those behind it.
• ZCorp Consultants are not only very fast-moving and fast-eating with good amounts of health for a fast zombie, they can switch lanes at random, and their most dangerous ability pushes zombies they touch forwards and into other lanes, akin to a combination of Pianist and Breakdancer Zombie. They also have a chance of retreating back the other way, allowing them to push more zombies near the entrances again. As a fun bonus, they're also a Guide Dang It! since the Zombiepedia gives zero indication of what they do.
• ZCorp HelpDesks are souped-up versions of the Lost Pilot Zombies, capable of dropping in the middle of your defenses, but with health nearly that of a Buckethead and faster speed. When they lose half their health they throw their laptops at a range, most likely destroying whatever plant it hits in the middle-to-back rows, before moving at flighty speeds and eating your frontline fast.
• ZCorp Chair Racers are quite similar to Rodeo Legends, moving quickly and dealing massive damage to the first plant they hit before launching themselves a few squares forwards into your broken defences. Unlike Rodeo Legends, which need to get ready for a bit at the opposite end of a lawn before charging, these guys immediately rush at your plants from the get-go, requiring good amounts of DPS to put down before they crash into your plants.
• Firebreather Zombies move quickly, have a good amount of health, and use a very damaging fire Breath Weapon on all plants within 3 squares in front, decimating walls in seconds and countering several powerful but close-range plants such as Pokra, Explode-o-Vine, and Headbutter Lettuce. Firebreathers are naturally especially dangerous on a Save Our Seeds level, being able to cause an instant loss from afar — and one of them in the first Backyard Big Top Thymed Event has a Twin Sunflower just five squares from the entrance. Ice does put out their fire breath capability and prevents them from reigniting even from fire plants, thankfully.
• Magician Zombies have the same health as a Conehead, move slowly, and can cast three magic tricks in order. The first trick will teleport a group of zombies forwards, potentially into endangered plants, while they can block attacks on the Magician. The second teleports itself forward. The third summons 1-7 (usually 3) doves that act like Zombie Parrots at abducting your plants, but do it much quicker. The first trick is one of the most dangerous, and it's cast after a mere 6 seconds upon entering the lawn. They're also immune to certain magical effects like hypnosis and being turned into shrooms by Witch Hazel.
• Strongman Gargantuars act mostly like basic Gargantuars, with one difference: The Carnie Imp Twins they throw to the third column eat much faster than regular Imps and split forwards into two Carnie Imps on adjacent lanes (ala Barrel Roller's barrel) when killed, potentially landing on your second column or further. Best hope that you have defences to take care of the Carnie Imps on said columns, or you will be potentially losing two mowers — plus, if the Carnie Imp Twins touch a lawnmower, the Carnie Imps explode forwards behind your mowers and cause an instant loss.

Plants vs. Zombies 2: Chinese Version

In general:

• The Chinese edition adds many, many more dangerous zombies, most of which are in the dreaded Sky City.
• Leveled zombies in general are tough to deal with without your own leveled plants. They all have massively-boosted health and eat through normal plants in seconds.

Dark Ages:

• The Cavalry Zombie is basically the Knight Zombie, the Surfer Zombie, and the Zombie Bull all rolled into one. It's basically a Bull, but it not only launches a Knight Zombie instead of an Imp, but it pulls a Surfer Zombie by one-shotting a plant and leaves a lance behind that blocks attacks.
• If you thought the Wizard was bonkers, meet his direct upgrade, the Archmage Zombie. He thankfully attacks far less often, but his shots will put plants in a 3x3 grid to sleep. Since they are just asleep, zombies can eat through the defenseless plants. The worst thing about the Archmage is that there is exactly one plant that reverses the spells, coffee bean... Which means nothing, since the number of Archmages will quickly out-speed the recharge time.

Sky City:

• Zombie Fighter. It's pretty much the only enemy that has a decent counter, and you will suffer if you don't use the pineapple. Otherwise, it's not that bad... until it rams itself across the row at death, likely taking out an entire row of plants.
• The Double Cabin Zombie is just the Zombie Fighter with health on par with Robo-Cones, except it takes up two lanes allowing it to shred plants across lanes. Also, you need to destroy both cabins, giving the plane double the health and harder to destroy with 3x3 insta kills. The icing on the cake is that it's intended counter, Spinapple, won't work, since it only shoots if a lane is clear of all plants. And try to set up a trap at the ground tiles, since the aircraft will explode, dealing massive damage to the house.
• Arbiter-Xs are just like Glitter Zombies, except they are WAY tougher (Robo-Cone levels), and protect even more zombies from harm. Lantern Cherry can make the zombies vulerable, but it has an awful recharge time.
• Flying Imps. They are thrown to the first column in hoards by Transport Boats, which would be bad enough. But, the imps will turn around and eat through your ground defenses backwards. There is no good counter against Flying Imps; there is no room to invest in backwards firing plants on the ground waves and no air plants can shoot backwards, becides Rotobaga, but even then, you have to save room for stronger air plants to deal with the rest of the monsters on this list. The wiki even says that you should let the imps destroy your ground plants; there just simply isn't a way to stop Flying Imps.
• The first of the Chinese-only Gargantuars, Flying Gargantuar, may be one of the worst offenders in the series. He carries two Flying Imps, which are described above. Once again, there is no good counter against this Gargantuar. There is no good air plants that can stall him, and he stops between the 3rd and 4th colums, keeping him out of reach of popular stalling options and blocking damage. It only takes three Gargs for your base to go down in seconds. The worst part? Shrinking him via Shrining Violet does not prevent him from throwing Imps.

Frostbite Caves:

• The Walrus Zombie is a tough foe that squishes plants instantly (even Primal Wallnut!) and leaves an ice trail that you can't plant on. Jalapeno can shut him down, but it's even harder to obtain the plant in the Chinese version. The ice trail also greatly speeds up Ski Zombies, which would be problematic enough, but the zombie can use the walrus as a ramp, jumping all the way into the first column. While it might seem like Ski Zombie is no different from other zombies that travel to the first column like Digger or Prospector, Ski is actually the only one of them to Subvert Mook Chivalry. As instead of going back to eat your defenses, he continues moving forward, a few steps away from eating your brains.

Kong-Fu World:

• Monk Imps are some of the most dangerous zombies in the game. Once it reaches a plant, it flies over four tiles. Not only do they breach a significant portion of the lawn, Imp Monks are completely invincible when flying. They also have a nasty tendency to land on endangered plants or directly on flower lines. Fortunately, they will instantly die if Shrinking Violet is used on it or if Blover is used while they are jumping.
• Zombie Swordsmen are a direct upgrade from Explorers. They one shot most plants and move fast, but you can't get rid of their swords in anyway. The worst thing about them is that they are way more common, since weapon stands can arm them.
• The Bronze Gargantuars only appear on three conveyor belt levels, one being a bonus level, but they are absolute monsters. They not only have more HP than Jurassic Gargantuars, Bronzes come with overpowered abilities on top of the typical Garg traits. They can switch lanes, summon zombies, pull plants, and more, and the conveyors don't give you many good plants. You can destroy their statues to stop them from spawning, but they got even more health than the actual Gargantuars.

Heian Age

• Onmyoji Zombie uses his fan to summon a wind that pushes up to 3 zombies in his lane forward, allowing them to bypass walls. This would be bad enough already, but after the wind stops a tornado is then summoned on the lane which drags the first non-gargantuar it hits forward several squares (releasing them after a bit, but then it can pick up a next one to drag them further). The kicker is that the tornado will One-Hit Kill almost any non-low-lying plant it hits then vanish, even instants like Cherry Bomb and plants using Plant Food, an otherwise-Invulnerable Attack. The Windbreak Dendrobium can nullify the tornado up to three times, but it does nothing to stop zombies being pushed forward by both the wind and tornado.

Fairytale Forest:

• Guard-gantuars. They move only slightly slower than a regular Gargantuar, but have Damage Reduction that reduces all damage taken by 3/4, making them super durable. When killed without being turned to ash, they drop their shield like Surfer Zombie, killing the plant it lands on, blocking shots, and it has a stupidly tanky 10000HP. If that's not enough, certain Guard-gantuars can have a Red Queen Imp riding on it but cannot throw her at low HP, instead dropping her upon non-incineration death. She'll immediately try to run away, and if not killed within 1 second of running, will summon a Cavalry Zombie on her lane and both adjacent ones, which are already deadly enemies to deal with.
• The Witch Zombie. Like the Wizard Zombie, she turns your plants into useless animals and she must be killed for them to turn back. Unlike the Wizard's sheep, which stay put, the frogs she turns your plants into will hop one tile to the right every 2 seconds, and if they hop out of the lawn, they're gone, making her a combination of the Wizard and Fisherman Zombie. Even if she dies, your plant arrangement gets screwed over, or a few even sent out of the lawn entirely.

Frostbite Caves Resurgence:

• The veteran zombies introduced in this Secret Realm in general. For starters, unlike the previously introduced veteran zombies, they are also Elite zombies and possess a disturbing amount of 150000 HP, which is more HP than most bosses, basically making them Boss in Mook Clothing to the point they can outright surviving a lawnmower with little scratches. They have a resistant mechanic that protects them heavily from non-fire attacks and immunity to several effects (e.g. hypnosis, freezing, stunning and more.) The kicker is when their resistance bar drops to 0, you only have several seconds to damage them with non-fire attacks normally while they are stunned until their resistance mechanic is recovered. In fact, a level 5 Primal Peashooter^note allows it to shoot magma peas, which count as fire attacks on top of power boost upon level used in tandem with Torchwood is required to deal with these Elite zombies. The following Elite zombies are Demonic Spiders in their own rights:
  • Elite Hunter Zombie. Unlike normal Hunter Zombie, the Elite Hunter Zombie throws snowballs that can instantly kill any plants that cannot be frozen. The kicker is his snowballs are able to kill not one but two plants at once and he can also throw snowballs to adjacent lanes as well. Like Jurassic Rockpuncher, he can use his club to kill plants instantly in close range instead of eating them.
  • Elite Weasel Hoarder. Just like her normal counterpart, she can release a bunch of Ice Weasels when breaking her hollow trunk. What makes her far more dangerous than her normal counterpart is the fact she can release Ice Weasels on her own while her armor is still intact. The worst part is the Ice Weasels summoned by her Elite counterpart. Unlike the normal Ice Weasel, the Elite Ice Weasels are straight up Lightning Bruiser as opposed to Fragile Speedster, for reference, an Elite Ice Weasel has a whopping of 1000 HP, which is significantly stronger than an Ice Weasel 25 times. Having a swarm of speedy critters but with the health of a Fisherman is definitely something you don't want to have.
  • Elite Chief Ice Wind Zombie. If you thought normal Chief Ice Wind Zombie was bad, then you have his veteran counterpart. For one, he is capable of freezing three lanes at once in an instant. Not only that, but his ability can also push zombies forwards akin to Onmyoji Zombie.

Parkour Party

• The Parkour Runner Zombie is a combination of ZCorp Consultant and Pole Vaulter Zombie as he can switch lanes randomly and jumps over plants and EVEN LAWNMOWERS. The only way to defeat such zombie is using tall plants such as Tall-nut. At times, he can jump over your tall defense which can cause a game over easily.

PvP Mode:

• Monkeyfruits. They are strong. How strong? Enough to completely destroy Level 4 Gargantuars at level 2.
• Auberninja. At level 5, it has a high chance of one-shotting zombies. This includes Gargantuars!

Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare series

• There is quite lot of these in Garden Ops.
  • Foot Soldiers are annoying to deal, having unusually good accuracy and have a tendency to rocket jump as soon as you get near them.
  • Scientists. Not only can they heal zombies and themselves, they can deal a giant amount of damage to players, are also pretty good at accuracy and can easily KO players. Thankfully, they've been nerfed in the sequel.
  • Engineers can create teleporters for more zombies to join the fight. Their Sonic Grenades can also stun you, which is really bad if there's more than just the Engineer nearby or if you're low on health without anyone nearby to help.
  • Berserkers (Blitzers in the sequel). They are special versions of All-Stars, that while without any guns, can Sprint Tackle you constantly, making them quite deadly in groups. Not to mention they also tend to stay away from you most of the time until they sprint at you and they have reletively high health.
  • Superheroes can take quite the beating and deal a lot of damage if they get close. Better hope they're low on health when they activate their Turbo Twister whilst you're close to them.
• There's also some in Graveyard Ops.
  • Roses, since they're able to slow you down, turn you into a goat, which in turn will make you unrevivable if you die as one and thanks to their homing attacks, will be hitting you a lot. That fact they can be hard to hit, thanks to being thin and have a smug grin on their faces, most of the time doesn't help.
  • Citrons. As if their giant health isn't enough, they're able to block your attacks for a bit with their shield, stun you and can deal a massive amount of damage with their orange beam, alone.
  • Chompers. Their bites can do a lot of damage and can stop you cold with their goop, which'll leave you wide open for assault.
• Giga Gnomes are a source of grief to many players in Infinity Time and for good reason. While slow, if you get blindsided, they will clobber you with a 300 damage smash. (which would be a one hit KO if fought in the Trials of Gnomous) They also have a laser beam similar to Giga Gargantuar's, but it tracks perfectly. This isn't too bad with most of the cast, but good luck with the slow Infinity Robots.
• Gnome Floaties are even worse, since they can both deal and withstand alot of damage, while also destablizing time, which if not stopped, will result in an instant loss. Better yet, other enemies can attack you while you are trying to take them out.
• In the PVP modes, there are plenty of variants that can be a pain to deal with, which also happen to be at the top of nearly every tier list:
  • Characters with manually detonated projectiles, such as Eletro Pea, Captain Cannon, and Petrified Cactus. They have worse fire fates and dps than their vanilla counterparts, but what makes them so infuriating is that they have obscenely wide explosions while also being able to choose when they explode, this allows them to easily hit around corners against people who try to heal up. And they need that healing, most of the classes with such weapons can hit for a flat 27-30 that is completely unaffected by fallout. Electro Pea in particular is the most infamous since on top of being nearly impossible to hit with its hyper ability, has electric attacks that arc between zombies, which allow its shots to hit twice.
  • Agent Pea is frequently cited as the best class in the entire game, and for good reason. He trades the base class's slow projectiles for a full auto hitscan similar to the foot soldiers, except with a massive critical hit multiplier that allows it to hit for 30s from across the map. He has less health than the base Pea Shooter, but the class, in general, is hard to hit via pogo maneuvers with the hyper ability.
  • Arctic Trooper has all the worst traits of the base class as mentioned above except 1: they are controlled by a far smarter human, and 2: they can freeze plants much faster than other ice-theme characters. This leaves them wide open for a ZPG, or the trooper can retreat and heal up.
  • The Marine Biologist is an extreme example of a Combat Medic. He deals almost no damage from afar, but up close, no plant can hope to survive nearly 50 damage per shot. For reference, most plants barely have more than 100 HP, and he still has his warps to instantly get on top of plants or retreat and heal. The Computer Scientist hits nearly has hard, but once he activates Crunch Time, he can hit nearly '70 damage criticals while also moving way faster.

Plants vs. Zombies Heroes

Ah yes, even this game can never be fully balanced with its own set of demonic spiders. On the plus side, if you're the one using them, it's a game breaker.

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Plant Side:

• Guardian class:
  • Three-Nut makes any plant that is played get their Strength set to 3. Many low-strength Nuts such as Wall-Nut, Mirror-Nut and Pecanolith that could be easily removed by a cheap Rolling Stone or Weed Spray suddenly become immune to them while having Strength low enough to avoid Rocket Science, and also gain the capability to attack. If Three-Nut is not taken care of, even a Wall-Nut for the cost of 1 sun and can be played in front of other Plants becomes a 3/6 threat.
  • Mirror-Nut. Whenever a nut gets hurt (That includes Mirror-Nut itself), this plant deals two damage to the hero. Nuts have extremely high health, so by the time a nut dies, you probably already lost your shield. Dealing with it directly isn't a good choice either, as it's a nut itself, and hurting it makes its effect happen. And god help you if it's played after Wall-Nut Bowling. Weed Spray will however make short work of almost all nuts without triggering the effect, thanks to most nuts having low strength... unless Three-Nut is on the field. Also, it has 8 health, so if you don't have rolling stone, bouncing cards, or deadly cards, you are going to take huge damage.
• Kabloom class:
  • Astro-Shroom is 1/1 unit for 1 sun, but he deals 1 Bullseye damage to the zombie hero whenever the Plant Hero plays a teammate. Naturally, he will be found in Zerg Rush decks with cheap card draw and cheap minion spawning. While it's easy to destroy in the Zombie Tricks or Combat phase, he will be hitting you for unavoidable damage during the Plants Play phase, and even if he and his teammates are destroyed, chances are that another Astro-Shroom and a swarm of cheap teammates are ready the next turn for more damage to your face. It's normally annoying, but when he's under Nightcap's control along with Planet of the Grapes^note draw a card when a plant on this damages the Zombie Hero and Lima-Pleurodon^note When the Plant Hero draws a card, this shuffles into the deck a 1-cost 4/4 Magic Beanstalk that draws a card when played, he becomes a lot more dangerous.
  • Punish-shroom. Every time a mushroom dies, this plant deals damage to the hero or a random card. When it's included, the deck is probably a mushroom deck, and the user will probably spam weak mushrooms like Button Mushroom and Shroom for Two. If it isn't killed in time, it's very likely that it will take a toll on your health.
  • Set 4 gave Sergeant Strongberry, a below-mentioned demonic spider himself, another strawberry he could work with — the 3-cost 3/3 Strawberrian. When any berry is played, Strawberrian would deal 1 damage to zombies in his lane and next door, and Strongberry could easily follow that up with 2 damage to each of them the next turn when he's played. This is equivalent to playing both a weaker Cherry Bomb and planting down a teammate, and if Strawberrian is evolved, he also gives the Plant Hero a free Berry Blast. Strawberrian was so bad that an update nerfed his stats to 3/2 and removed the ability to hit the zombie in his lane.
  • Pineclone. What she does is to turn all the Plant Teammates on the board into more 3/3 Pineclones. This is often used when the Plant Hero has a ton of weak but numerous plants on the board with Team-Up such as Shroom For Two, Pair of Pears, Button Mushrooms, Lil' Buddies, etc, turning them into a huge swarm of moderately powerful plants. Since Pineclones have 3 Strength, it also makes them immune to Weed Spray, Rocket Science, and Cut Down To Size, and due to 3 HP most area-wide attacks like The Chickening or Acid Rain won't kill the lot. Season 2 also introduced Molekale to go along with it, which turns plants into random plants that cost 1 Sun more- since all Pineclones would cost 4 by default, playing a Molekale will makes them into a whole field of 5-sun plants ready to destroy the zombie Hero at a moment's notice. It's saying something when Extinction Event and Supernova Gargantuar when released to deal with her.
  • Prior to an update that changed how the Block Meter worked, Sergeant Strongberry was this. When another berry did damage to a Zombie or Zombie Hero, Sergeant Strongberry would hit them for an extra 2 damage. Sergeant Strongberry is a berry, and can respond to another Strongberry's attack. With 2 of these in play, the Plant Hero just needed to drop a Berry Blast on the Zombie Hero, prompting one Sergeant Strongberry to hit the Zombie Hero, followed by the other Sergeant Strongberry responding, followed by the first and so on and so forth until the Zombie Hero dropped, block Meter be damned. Even now, you better hope your block meter doesn't betray you, it wasn't completely used up, or you aren't milled^note It's a Heartstone term for when you're unable to draw a card or the endless loop can still happen to you.
• Mega-Grow class:
  • Clique Peas is a Mega-Grow Bean Pea plant that costs 1, and has 1/1 for stats. It sounds weak, but each time a Clique Peas is played, they give all Clique Peas +1/+1 (including the one that's played, those on the board, and those in the Plant Hero's hand and deck) for the rest of the game, and also shuffles two more Clique Peas into the Plant Hero's deck. This makes all of them grow stronger each time one is played, and considering how cheap their cost is at one sun, they can very easily fill up the Plant Hero's deck and be spammed with great ease, and a 10/10 for the mere cost of 1 sun is nothing to laugh at. If you're faced against Green Shadow, she can combo this with Rescue Radish which bounces it back into her hand... which means an extra +1/1 will commence, and she'll get 2 more Clique Peas, and also combos with her Admiral Navy Bean, which attacks the Zombie Hero directly for 2 damage each time a Bean is played to whittle their health and Super-Block meter down while the Clique Peas deal major damage. Don't forget that their cheap cost makes them a Zerg Rush ideal plant which can also empower Potted Powerhouse^note A 5-cost 3/3 teammate that gains +1/+1 to her stat for each plant boosted while in the Plant hero's hand. It got so bad that the Set 3 update gave them a hefty Nerf, causing their Sun cost to increase by 1 per Clique Peas played.
  • Pea Pod. It's a direct upgrade to Peashooter, and gains 1/1 every turn. If properly protected, it can get really powerful.
  • Doubled Mint. Similar to the pea pod, but instead of gaining 1/1, his stats double every turn. This means that in 6 turns, he can one-shot the zombie hero. Though, his fragility upon being planted can result in many people simply offing him before he can be an issue.
  • Lily of the Valley. What appears to be an unassuming 1/2 plant for 2 sun can be quite a game changer for a Mega-Grow hero. While her stats are pretty horrdenous and is usually easily removed, as long as she's around, any plant played on the Heights lane gets +2 Strength and +2 HP. This can easily and quickly spell doom on the Heights lane if not removed (such as two 3/3 Shroom For Two, or a 7/6 Skyshooter on turn 4). If there's more than one on the ground lanes when a plant's played on the heights, then you'd better have a Rocket Science/Locust Swarm on hand, Alien Ooze to destroy/weaken the plant, or something to block the heights, or you're finished soon. Even worse, she used to be 1/3 so be thankful she lost 1 health in an update.
  • Captain Cucumber is a Legendary 1/4 card for 3 sun. Pretty bad in terms of stats, until you see his ability— When he does damage to anything, he Conjures a random Legendary card into the Plant hero's hand, and any conjured plant cards costs 1 sun less. This includes pretty much all the plant legendary cards around here, and many of them are huge game-changers. The only way for the Zombie hero to stop him from giving the Plant hero a legendary card is to use an Armored zombie to prevent damage (which may still not work, thanks to Captain being a Mega-Grow class, he can easily get a strength boost), or to immediately remove him via Rolling Stone or Weed Spray before he even gets a chance to attack. Worse part? He can also be paired with any of the Dino-Roar cards on this page, since conjuring counts as drawing a card, like the below mentioned Bananasaurus Rex.
  • Bananasaurus Rex has the Dino-Roar trait which makes her use a special ability whenever the Plant Hero draws a card. Said ability gives her +1/+1 each time (read: each turn, making her like Pea Pod above), and performs an Extra Attack at the end of a turn like Repeater. If this is paired up with Party Thyme (draw a card when an Extra Attack is performed), she'll literally grow out of hand and kill off any Zombie Teammates and even the Zombie Hero if not removed. Heaven helps if the Plant Hero has Captain Cucumber the turn before, because now you have two demonic spiders and they both benefit each other.
  • Gatling Pea. It's a 5-cost plant that has 5 attack and 4 health, has Double Strike (attacks after combat if it survives), and its Pea Evolution (played on a Pea plant) makes it perform a Bonus Attack. If it's Evolved and boosted by two attack from Torchwood, Podfather, Lily of the Valley, or Pea Patch, it can destroy the zombie in front while dealing massive damage by hitting once for 5 damage (7 if it was evolved from Pea Patch) then two times for 7 damage each. And if Grape Power is used on it to double its damage from 5 to 10, that's a potential one-turn kill if no zombies are in front.
  • Apotatosaurus is a Mega-Grow 5/5 for 6 Sun that gets +1/+1 every time a card is drawn or conjured on the plant side, and conjures a Root preventing loss of card advantage (while buffing itself). What makes it even more dangerous is its Untrickable trait making it completely unaffected by any tricks, such as Rocket Science or Locust Swarm that would have made it far easier to destroy. Being Mega-Grow, the Plant Hero can easily boost its health and strength further, making it nearly impossible to take care of without teammates that have Deadly, other instant-kill, or bounce effects.
• Smarty class: As a whole, it has several annoying and potentially dangerous teammates. A huge number of the cards can bounce your zombies back into your deck, rendering their buffs useless. A few more can freeze them and stop them from moving completely. Then there's the Plants that can hit with Splash Damage (that hits zombie teammates but not the Zombie Hero) or even worse, attack in multiple lanes (which does hit the Zombie Hero).
  • Snowdrop gains 2/2 for every time a zombie is frozen, Winter Squash does a One-Hit Kill on any zombie that gets frozen, and Cool Bean freezes all gravestones, working with the previous two's effects. A freeze deck is bound to contain several of them along with freeze-based plants.
  • Primal Peashooter bounces any zombie it hits and doesn't kill, resetting their stats. It also costs 1 Sun making it extremely cheap, and has 2/2 for stats which is great for a 1-cost plant. For reference, the trick that just bounces a zombie costs 3 sun. Have fun when it screws up your plays by wasting all those cards you used on your zombie.
  • Sportacus is a 3/3 plant that costs 3 sun, but unlike Vanilla, it comes with a deadly ability. Every time the Zombie hero plays a trick when it's on the field, Sportacus will damage the Zombie hero directly for 2 damage. Got it paired up with Mirror-Nut as Citron and Beta-Carrotina and you got yourself a demonic spider pair. Nightcap could also pair him up with the above mentioned Punish-Shroom.
  • Threepeater, has five health, and shoots on both its lane and the lanes beside it. If it's played by Green Shadow and gets boosted, good luck. And then there's its upgrade in Tricorn with 1 more attack and health, but if Evolved from another plant it will have 4 strength while still being able to attack down 3 lanes!
  • Shooting Starfruit is a 2/2 Legendary for 5 Sun, but it attacks down all lanes. That's five times the damage and potential hits on the zombie hero, but it's not that strong... unless it's in Green Shadow's hands. Her Mega-Grow class has many ways to boost its strength as well as its health, and she also has Umbrella Leaf to protect it from tricks. If boosted and protected carefully, it can wreck all the zombie teammates in one go or even become a One-Hit Kill on the Zombie Hero if there's enough open lanes.
  • Brainana is a 6-sun card that has only 4/3 for stats and Amphibious. What it does when played however is remove all the zombie Hero's brains, and unless the Zombie Hero has Gentleman Zombies on the field, they'll be forced to skip the tricks phase. Sometimes, Seedling can also turn into one of these at the start of the turn, thus depriving the Zombie Hero from doing anything in the turn!
  • Dark Matter Dragonfruit is by far one of Smarty's most dreaded units. A Legendary 6/6 for 8 Sun that has Amphibious, deals 6 Splash Damage (Enough to kill at least 90% of unboosted zombies), and most importantly increases the cost of all zombie tricks by 6. Most Zombie tricks become borderline unplayable when this is on the field, and it cannot be hit by Rocket Science on the turn it's sent out on. And if more than one enters the field, the zombie hero may as well throw all their trick cards aside. Sometimes, it will come with the below-mentioned Great Zucchini, so you can forget about your tricks and your zombies are useless 1/1s.
  • The Great Zucchini turns every zombie into a 1/1 zombie with no special abilities when played. Being a 7/7, 9-Sun amphibious plant means unless you have ways to remove it or amphibious zombies to block it, you're going to take huge damage too. Very dangerous when paired with the aforementioned Dark Matter Dragonfruit, as now the useful tricks to remove them both are brain heavy.
• Solar class:
  • Wing-Nut. That 3/7 4-cost plant? It's already troublesome enough due to its natural immunity to rolling stone and rocket science. And then its ability... if this is on the field, you can throw away all your bonus attack cards (and that includes Frenzy cards). Fighting Wall-Knight? He'll gladly pair it up with Mirror-Nut.
  • Heartichoke. She's a 3/4 4-cost meaning that she has protection from most cheap zombie removal, she is in the flower tribe so the below mentioned Briar Rose and Power Flower can benefit her, and in turn for the latter she benefits from its ability to heal since her ability deals damage to the zombie hero equal to the healing received to the plant hero or her teammates, especially the below mentioned Astro Vera, which is a whopping 10 damage flat, half your hero's max health, so if the plant hero manages to play two Astro Veras while she's on the field, the zombie hero will be defeated easily. If she activates her ability on Venus Flytraplanet as well, like the Sergeant Strongberry example above, you're going through a Cycle of Hurting with Heartichoke activating her ability every time she does damage to you (such as in this video) until either your block meter is activated, the plant hero heals to full, or you are defeated. Worst part, if your opponent is Solar Flare, she can end things right there by playing Venus Flytraplanet on turn 4, Heartichoke on turn 5 outside the environment, and then Dandy Lion King^note A 6-cost card that halves the zombie hero's health when played in the enviorment, allowing for Heartichoke to finish you off. It's saying something when Venus Flytraplanet was nerfed to require all plants to survive on it to activate its ability, Heartichoke herself was nerfed to no longer activate her ability when destroyed in combat, and a new card, Sneezing Zombie, a 4-cost card that when played, debuffed all plants on the field with a -1/-1 and more importantly, blocked all heal attempts while on the field.
  • Briar Rose. A 4-sun plant with 3/4 stats making her immune to most cheap Zombie removal, and she does a One-Hit Kill on any zombie teammate that hurts a flower tribe plant, which includes herself. This allows her to very easily destroy zombies when used in a flower deck. She's still a huge threat even after Knockout was introduced, which kills plants with 3 or less attack in a lane. It's telling when she was nerfed to cost 5 sun but she's still a formidable threat.
  • Power Flower. Firstly, it has Strikethrough, which means that it will hit the Zombie Hero when it attacks. Secondly, it heals the Plant Hero for 1 HP for every flower at the start of the turn, which means that three Power Flowers means 9 HP restored a turn. Lastly, it's a 3/5 5-cost card so it's a bit bulky with immunity to the common rolling stone and rocket science.
  • Astro Vera. This Galactic Garden card increases the cap on the plant hero's Max HP by 10 and heals by 10, making it more tedious to defeat them. It's also a 5/5 so it can do big damage.
  • Cornucopia. When planted, it creates any type of plant in every other lane. Any type of plant. This could result in creating any of the other demonic spiders listed here, or more Cornucopias.

Zombie Side:

• Beastly class:
  • Vimpire. He gains +2/+2 every time he destroys a plant, and has Frenzy. As you'd expect, using weak Team-up plants like Shellery is practically suicide. He also rests within the same class as Biodome Botanist, who creates a 1/1 plant in any lane. That means he can effectively feed Vimpire for free, giving him even more attack! He's at his worst when in the hands of Brain Freeze, as he can combo him with Toxic Barrel Imp to give him Deadly so you can't even wall him, or Immorticia with Teleport, which would allow her to know when playing him will hurt the most. Then there's Ancient Vimpire, a Vimpire with 1 more strength and health for 1 extra brain, except that it grants Vimpire's buff-on-kill ability to all zombies with Frenzy as long as it's alive. Thankfully, both of them are instantly killed should they attack a Garlic.
  • Smashing Gargantuar. What makes this zombie so dangerous is that he gives the Frenzy trait to all other Gargantuars on the field, including himself. If the opponent has enough Gargantuars on the field before placing this monster and you have no answer to the whole lot of them (Like Doom-Shroom or Briar Rose plus a huge swarm of flowers), you're on your own.
  • Gargantuar-throwing Gargantuar may sound like a hilarious joke (being part of a Running Gag of zombie-throwing zombies) and has lower than average stats at 6/6 for 7 brains, but every time it's hurt it will spawn a random Gargantuar excluding itself in a random lane. This includes all the Gargantuars here including Zombot 1000.
  • Octo Zombie returns, and he's even worse. He has decent stats for its price (8/8 for 8 brains), but he also has Amphibious, which allows him to be on water lanes, and Frenzy, which makes him attack after killing a plant. Oh, and by the way, only one plant in the whole game has health higher than 8 by default (Soul Patch), meaning he will get that Frenzy attack off... unless he's stopped by a Guacodile (deals 4 damage, then deals another 4 damage when killed, killing the Octo and preventing the frenzy attack). Finally, his ability makes him get placed back in the Zombie Hero's hand when killed... which means that he will keep returning every time he dies so you are just wasting your cards, unless the Plant Hero manages to transform him. Fortunately, his expensive cost means actually, the plant hero can just as easily rush down the zombie hero before he can attack.
  • Zombot 1000. The Final Boss of the first game would seem devastatingly powerful, and it is. Not only does it have rather high stats (9/9 for 9 brains), but it also destroys all plants on the field when placed down. It's also a Gargantuar zombie, meaning that it can be boosted by certain other Gargantuar zombies or even summoned by the Gargantuars' Feast trick if you're particularly unlucky. Fortunately, on the turn it's played and due to the order of how each phase happens, it means you have plenty of sun to block off Zombot 1000 and set-up your win elsewhere... unless you're fighting Brain Freeze with Graveyard or Cursed Gargolith, Immorticia with Teleport and Teleportation Zombie, or Professor Brainstorm with either of those cards together, in that case, they can violate the phase order (in this case, by having its ability happen after the plant hero ends their phase), allowing them to clear your field and have huge damage inflicted upon you.
• Brainy class:
  • Teleportation Zombie. It's a Brainy 2-cost 1/5 with Bullseye and Gravestone, almost similar to Cactus. What this does, however, is that zombies are able to play Zombies during the Tricks phase, exactly like using the Teleport trick, which is That One Attack. This allows combos like the OTK Valkyrie or Teleport Zombot 1000 to be easier to play, while also bypassing the extra trick cost from Dark Matter Dragonfruit.
  • Mustache Monument. It's a 1/5 for 2 Brains and isn't too remarkable in stats. but it is a Fusion card, meaning that other Zombies can be played on it to trigger another effect. Said effect allows any zombie played on it to perform a Bonus Attack, and this can be combined with several dangerous zombies to really put on the hurt, such as Valkyrie, Shieldcrusher Viking, Kitchen Sink Zombie, and can help with comboing with Mime Gargantuar. The fact that it was nerfed to cost 3 brains should say something about it.
  • Zom-Blob quickly earned lots of ire from Plant players as soon as Colossal Fossils was released. It's a 1/5 for 3 Brains with Bullseye, meaning that the Plant Hero cannot super-block its attack. However, when Evolved, it gains Strength equal to the amount of Brains the Zombie Hero made that turn — and with usage of Medulla Nebula and Brain Vendor, they can certainly get that amount up fast. Add in a Bonus Attack via Lurch For Lunch and the Plant Hero can lose over half their health on turns 4-5 if the Zombie Hero gets a good combo hand. This got bad enough that both Medulla Nebula and Zom-Blob were nerfed, the former giving less brains and the latter no longer having Bullseye.
  • Gadget Scientist. He's only a 2/3 for five brains, but when played he causes all Science-type zombies (including himself) to automatically attack. That can be dangerous enough, given that there are several quite powerful Science zombies in the game, including every single Zombot, but what really makes him deadly is that he allows the zombies to attack during the "Zombies Play" phase of the game, before the plants are allowed to do anything at all after the last round of fighting.
  • Kitchen Sink Zombie, a Brainy-class 3/6 fighter for 6 Brains. PopCap wasn't kidding when they named him that, since he comes with (nearly) everything including the kitchen sink for traits that can easily ruin a plant's day. To wit, he has Bullseye, Frenzy, Overshoot 2 (and thanks to Bullseye, it will never be blocked), Anti-Hero 3 (again, unblockable), and Armored 1. While he may only have 3 attack, his 6 health will mean that most non-instant kills won't be able to destroy him on turn 6, and he can very easily deal 8 damage to the Plant Hero from Overshoot and Anti-Hero. Even if fronted by a plant fighter, the zombie hero can play Lurch For Lunch (also a Brainy card) to weaken the plant before KSZ breaks through on the combat Phase and hits the plant hero with an Anti-Hero attack anyway thanks to Frenzy. If he's played on a Laser Base Alpha (which gives him Strikethrough and Deadly, the two traits he lacks), it's going to HURT.
  • Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur. While it costs a hefty 7 Brains to play, it has 6 Bullseye damage, 7 health, and an ability that makes a random History zombie in a random lane when a card is drawn/conjured on the zombie side. Brainy excels at drawing cards, and several of the History Zombies do include other Legendary dino-zombies like Stompadon and Mondo Bronto^note which will ALWAYS be spawned on the water lane if it's empty, due to being the only Amphibious History zombie.
• Crazy class:
  • Quickdraw Con Man costs 1 brain to use, and is a 1/4 with Bullseye meaning that he has an great amount of health for a 1-cost unit with the capability to attack. Making matters even more dicey is that every time the Plant Hero draws a card, he hits them for 1 damage that is unblockable thanks to Bullseye, and this will likely occur thanks to very few things being able to kill it on turn 1. He can get even more dangerous in the hands of Brainstorm, who has Regifting Zombie to cause both players to draw 2 cards, and Wormhole Gatekeeper which causes both players to draw an extra card each turn, or in Impfinity's hands, since he has Swashbuckler to buff the Con Man every time the Plant Hero draws a card. Tellingly, he was nerfed the following update, having its health lowered to 3 and allowing more turn 1 plays to kill him.
  • The Valkyrie is a 3-brain cost card starts with 0 strength but gains 2 each time a zombie is killed, and considering that other Crazy class zombies are Glass Cannons that die very easily, her strength would become pretty hefty- enough to kill the Plant Hero in one hit if enough zombies are killed. She becomes a truly Demonic Spider in the hands of Professor Brainstorm, who can use Teleport to play her in the Zombie Tricks phase, ensuring that the Plant Hero can't do anything to stop her, then use Rocket Science to remove an opposing plant or Lurch For Lunch get her to do a bonus attack in an empty lane for a nearly-guaranteed Instant-Win Condition. Come the Triassic Triumph set, and all Brainstorm has to do now is to play a Mustache Monument then play her on it, giving her a Bonus attack and more often than not a clean lane for Valkyrie to do her job. Even after her cost was nerfed from 3 to 4 brains, she's still a high level threat.
  • Binary Stars is a Gravestone Zombie that is a 3/3 for 5 brains cost. Their ability doubles all damage dealt from the Zombie side, including damage from Tricks, which means that if they're not destroyed the Zombies will be putting the hurt on your Plant Hero, especially if they have Overshoot (which, considering that Binary Stars and Overshoot are Crazy Class exclusives, it could happen easily). And if there's more than one, their effect stacks, resulting in 4x or more of the damage dealt to the plants— a simple Bungee Plumber dealing 8, while Zombot's Wrath deals an instant 12 damage ^note Or 24, if you have zombies in every lane. For reference, the highest health any non-Solar plant hero can have is... 20.! And if this is combo'd with Gas Giant^note Crazy class, deals 5 damage to Plant Hero if killed and Final Mission^note also Crazy class, sacrifices a zombie to deal 4 damage to any selected plant or Plant hero, that's equal to 18 damage if unblocked!
  • Gas Giant is a Crazy 6-cost 5/5 with the ability to do 1 damage to each other plant and zombie when hurt and 5 damage to the plant hero when destroyed. This means if 2 or more Gas Giants are on the field at once and one is damaged, they will continue hurting everything else on the field and each other until every Gas Giant dies. This makes for 5 damage to the plant hero for each Gas Giant. If the plant hero decides to avoid damaging them, they will still be threat and continue to deal 5 damage to whatever they hit. So pick your poison.
• Hearty class:
  • The Arm Wrestler can quickly get out of control at the start of the game if you don't defend against it properly. It's a 2/2 Hearty Sports zombie fighter for 1 brain, which is already above average stats. The kicker is that if a plant is placed or moved on its lane, it gets 1/1. The zombie is essentially a 3/3 threat on turn 1 since zombies place teammates first, and only a few plants can remove it on the same turn (Primal Potato Mine, Bonk Choy, Haunted Pumpkin). Ignoring it would be just as bad, since its base stats are nothing to laugh at, and the same class has Black Hole, which will force plants to its lane and reduce its strength, allowing Arm Wrestler to survive. Given that the Arm Wrestler is a Hearty and Sports minon, it's ridiculously easy for it to get beefed up even further by Loudmouths or supported by fellow Sports zombies, like Team Mascot Imp.
  • Gargologists are this if not taken care of quickly. They have average attack and above-average HP for a 2 Brain cost card, and their ability reduces the cost of all Gargantuar cards by 2 Brains (such as all the Gargantuar cards mentioned here), stacking with more Gargologists. One of these surviving on the second turn allows the zombie player to get a Smashing Gargantuar on the third turn, then amass even more Gargantuars on the subsequent turns.
  • The release of Set 3 has the Jurassic Fossilhead. For 2 Brains, you get a 2/3 Zombie fighter. However, if he's Evolved from (played on to replace) a Professional Zombie, he gets another +3/+3, making him a potential 5/6 fighter with Untrickable on turn 2, since the Zombie Middle Manager and the durable Planetary Gladiator can be played on turn 1. Finally, he has the aforementioned Untrickable trait, which means that the Plant player can't even use tricks like Berry Blast, Weed Whack, Meteor Strike, Transmogrify, Goatify, Devour, Doom-Shroom, Tactical Cuke, Whack-A-Zombie, Shamrocket, Lawnmower or Squash to cripple or remove him — all of which would have made things far easier. Thankfully, he was nerfed the following update where he only gains +2/+2 when evolved, which while still a formidable threat is easier to handle.
  • Stompadon appears to have rather average stats for a Hearty Legendary, with 2/4 for 3 Brains. What makes this Stegosaurus so dangerous is that every time the Zombie player draws a card, it gives all zombies in the hand a +1/+1 stat boost. As a Hearty card, it can be combo'd with Going Viral that buffs all zombies and gives them Frenzy, puts more Going Viral into the deck, draws an extra card when played. It can also further boost the Jurassic Fossilhead who is immune to direct tricks. In Rustbolt's hands, it's even more dangerous considering that his Brainy class also allows easy extra card draw, which can easily boost the zombies in his hand sky high even faster. It was nerfed in the following update by now costing one more brain, but it's still a potent threat regardless.
  • Intergalactic Warlord is a 5-brain cost 2/2, but it's his ability that makes him a threat. When played or revealed from a Gravestone, he permanently gives all zombie Teammates +1/+1... including those in the Zombie Hero's hand and deck. This easily turns previously weak zombies into far greater threats. Naturally, Neptuna can make good use of him via Mixed-Up Gravedigger (another demonic spider) to buff all the zombies to ludicrous levels whenever he's revealed/played.
  • Defensive End is a Sports Gargantuar Zombie with 6 attack, 5 health, and Armored 1. What makes him dangerous however is his ability, causing plant tricks to cost 2 more sun, and this stacks. Two or more of these on the field and most plant tricks become borderline unplayable for a good while.
• Sneaky class:
  • Space Cowboy. He has Strikethrough, and when he hurts the Plant Hero (pretty much a given unless the Plant Hero super-blocks), he moves one lane to the right if it's empty. This means he can get to attack again since lane attacking order goes from left to right. And if he's given Frenzy (especially with Maniacal Laugh which also boosts him a good bit), he becomes even more dangerous since if he kills a Plant on his lane, he'll move to the next and do an extra attack from Frenzy, and if he kills any plants there, this continues until the Plant Hero falls or blocks!
  • Mixed-Up Gravedigger. He's got an average cost for power, a 5/5 for five brains, but it's his ability that makes him dangerous. When played, he makes all zombies in play go into a gravestone, then mixes up the positions so that even Grave Buster would become a guessing game without use of a Spyris. This not only recovers any lost health on the zombie team, but it also allows non-amphibious zombies to be placed on the water lane, said Gravestones block all damage save Strikethrough, meaning that Extra attacks are mostly useless, and most importantly, zombies that have a "When Played" or "When Revealed" ability (except himself) will use that ability again. Examples are Pogo Bouncer (a demonic spider itself) (who can bounce a plant another time), Firefighter (to bounce the MuG so he can be played yet again), Gadget Scientist (to get the science zombies another free attack), Zombot 1000 (to utterly destroy the plants again), Intergalactic Warlord (who will give all zombie teammates, even those that are in the zombie hero's hand and deck a permanent +1/+1 for the rest of the game) etc.

Plants vs. Zombies 3

• Armored zombies, including Coneheads and Bucketheads, are WAY more dangerous, since their armor now ignores a significant amount of damage. It's got to the point where you pretty much always have to bring instant kill plants, since even a Conehead can wade through the toughest of lawns.
• Silicorn Labs has a severe difficulty spike, arguably just as bad as Big Wave Beach. At this point in the Devour Tower, the zombie stats begin to really get out of control, to the point of basic zombies eating through Wall-nuts in a few seconds and being practically immune to anything less than heavy hitters or over-leveled plants. And these are just the browncoats, not even mentioning all the extremely dangerous zombies introduced.
• The Doughnut Roller is probably the first zombie that can cause problems with your defense, being a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to the Barrel Roller with more HP and not spawning imps when his hazard is destroyed. The same thing applies here, except worse because Spikerock is Put on a Bus, so you need to sacrifice a Spikeweed or waste a spot on your team for a Blockbuster who’s only strength is being able to destroy obstacles.
• The Pizza Guy Zombie is the game's equivalent to the dreaded Octo Zombie from the second game, throwing pizza on plants to immobilize them, and said pizzas need to be damaged enough in order to remove them. He also counts as an armored zombie (the armor being the pizza boxes), and mercifully throws less often as his boxes get destroyed. Unfortunately, when he still has his boxes, he throws pizza at a rather fast rate.
• The Sharktronic Sand Sub. It's like a Snorkel Zombie in how it hides underneath the surface with only a fin visible until it reaches a plant and surfaces to attack; unlike a Snorkel Zombie, it has very high speed, attack and armor. To make matters worse, the far weaker and more common Shark Suit Zombie (who uses the same underground gimmick) uses the exact same fin as it and both usually appear in the same level, meaning you have no idea who is who until they attack.

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