Headhunter is a triassic legendary zombie card in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes and a member of the Crazy class. He costs 4 to play and has 3/4. He does not have any traits, and his ability does 2 damage to the plant hero every time a dancing card is played, while his Dancing Evolution ability gives him +2/+2 and the Bullseye trait.
This ability stacks with each Headhunter on the field and persists until all Headhunters are removed from the field. His closest plant counterpart is Admiral Navy Bean.
Origins
His name is based on the real meaning of headhunter, a person who participates in the act of taking and preserving a person's head after killing the person.
His description is a reference to Disney World's Jungle Cruise, where a shrunken head-dealer named Sam offers the same deal with the same advice.
Statistics
- Class: Crazy
- Tribes: Dancing Mustache Zombie
- Traits: None
- Ability: When you play a Dancing card, do 2 damage to the Plant Hero. Dancing Evolution: This gets +2/+2 and Bullseye.
- Set - Rarity: Triassic - Legendary
Card description
He offers a special deal: Two of his heads for one of yours. Anyway you slice it, you still come out a head.
Update history
Update 1.24.6
Strategies
With
Headhunter is a great legendary that shines in dancing decks. His ability does direct damage to your opponent, which is effective in many situations. He synergizes greatly not only with the normal dancing synergy cards, but also with Dance Off, Disco Zombie, and Disco-Tron 3000. And unlike Flamenco Zombie's ability, his can activate indefinitely and doesn't require the dancing zombies, which tend to have low health, to survive.
While that is good enough, his Dancing Evolution ability is what makes him truly legendary. Not only does it give him a good stat boost that turns him into a zombie with above average stats, which is quite rare for even a legendary zombie, but also gives him a trait that makes his normal ability even deadlier, as your opponent will not be able to block any of them.
The only issue with his Evolution ability is that many dancing zombies playable by turn 3 have low health, and are unable to survive that turn. However, these following zombies are an exception, and are particularly good for it:
- Disco Dance Floor, as it gives Headhunter the Overshoot 3 trait, which is also affected by his Bullseye trait. It is also a Fusion card, which means it is meant to be used to benefit a zombie, thus not being a waste of stats or a perfectly good ability unlike the latter two. However, it is more vulnerable to both damage and destruction as well.
- Jester, as it has very high health, and few cards are able to destroy it at once. It also has the Gravestone trait, making it immune to plant tricks and bonus attacks. While Valkyrie has higher health, she is better off as a late-game finisher instead of mere Evolution.
- Synchronized Swimmer, as she is the only dancing zombie with the Amphibious trait, making it harder for your opponent to destroy Headhunter if they don't have the right cards.
Or, you can wait until turn 5 and then play a 1 dancing zombie like Backup Dancer to Evolve Headhunter.
Each hero has their own way to make good use out of Headhunter.
- Z-Mech synergizes the best with Headhunter, as he has access to Flag Zombie which lets you play more dancing cards for the same number of brains. He also has various health-boosting cards to keep Headhunter alive for longer, and Coffee Zombie or Going Viral to give Headhunter Frenzy and let him plow though any plants blocking him. Sadly, he does not normally have access to Dance Off, a good superpower for activating Headhunter's ability.
- Impfinity can give him Deadly via Barrel of Barrels to destroy any pesky Soul Patches on the field, and with Laser Base Alpha, Headhunter can attack your opponent for 5 unblockable damage while obliterating any plant in his way. But while Bullseye, Strikethrough, and Deadly combined is very good, that is just about it, as the only thing the Sneaky class can do to improve his survivability is by moving him with Smoke Bomb.
- Electric Boogaloo is similar to Z-Mech, as he has access to stat-boosting cards and the Frenzy trait, but he also has instant-kill cards. Two of his superpowers are also dancing cards.
- Professor Brainstorm can make him do bonus attacks, teleport him in, and make extra brains to swarm dancing cards more easily. He also has access to Dance Off.
Against
Headhunter is one of the most dangerous zombies in a dancing deck, and will finish you off, or at least heavily damage you if you don't prepare well.
Your opponent will attempt to play this as soon as they can, which is turn 4 without the help of Flag Zombie. Fortunately, Headhunter can't activate his ability when played on turn 4, unless your opponent blocks and gets Dance Off. You can take the opportunity and use instant-kills, damaging cards, or strong plants to destroy him.
But since your opponent will Evolve him if they can, you will need something strong to destroy, or at least severely hurt him during said turn, because if you don't, Headhunter will strike back with lots of Bullseye damage. If Headhunter is played later on in the game, you will have no choice but to take some damage.
It is best to destroy any dancing zombies on the field to stop Headhunter from Evolving. While that isn't hard to do since many dancing zombies have low health, there are certain zombies that are hard to destroy, such as Jester or Synchronized Swimmer, so it is recommended to carry some Berry Blasts or Whack-a-Zombies if you can. However, Headhunter is still a threat even if he hasn't Evolved, so you should never underestimate him in all circumstances.
Shamrocket and Lawnmower are among the best counters to him, assuming Headhunter isn't protected by Parasol Zombie. As a Mega-Grow or Kabloom hero, you can play heavy stat-boosting cards to at least cause an exchange. Mega-Grow heroes can also use bonus attacks. Smarty heroes can Bounce Headhunter, but note that Freezing won't be very effective unless Winter Squash is on the field.
His ability can be redirected by Soul Patch, saving you a lot of trouble, but that is a late-game strategy. This strategy will also be ruined if Headhunter gets Deadly.
Removing any support zombies or environments can also help you deal with Headhunter, examples being Flag Zombie, Laser Base Alpha, and Binary Stars.
Gallery
Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Headhunter.
|
|
In other languages
Please note that only official translations are used.
Language |
Name |
Description
|
English
|
Headhunter
|
|
Simplified Chinese
|
猎头者
|
|
Traditional Chinese
|
獵頭者
|
French
|
Chasseur de têtes
|
|
German
|
Kopfjäger
|
|
Italian
|
Cacciatore di teste
|
|
Japanese
|
ヘッドハンター
|
|
Korean
|
헤드헌터
|
|
Brazilian Portuguese
|
Caçador de Cabeças
|
|
Russian
|
Головорез
|
|
Spanish
|
Cazacabezas
|
|
Trivia
- He shares his animations and posture with Conga Zombie, while his leaf textures seem to be shared with Blowgun Imp, both of their leaves seem to be recolored versions of Doubled Mint's.