Imitater (Plants vs. Zombies)

For other uses, see Imitater (disambiguation).

Imitater is the forty-ninth and final plant introduced in Plants vs. Zombies, and is unlocked in Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies for $30,000 after completing Adventure Mode.

Imitater can copy any plant and its abilities, except for upgrade plants and himself. He can be used to effectively cut the recharge time of plants in half, although he takes up another seed slot.

History

The Imitater is one of three last plants obtainable in the game. He costs $30,000 to purchase the seed packet from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies, making him the most expensive plant in the game.

After purchasing the Imitater, he appears on the lower right part of the plant selection screen in a new added box on the side when choosing your seeds. Selecting it brings up an overlay, asking which plant it shall imitate for the round. After selecting, he will take up a slot as the imitated plant in a melancholy gray or shaded green (depending on version).

Suburban Almanac entry

PvZPvZ:OE

Imitater
Imitaters let you use two of the same plant during a level! "I remember the Zombie Wars back in '76," says Imitater in a raspy, old-man's voice. "Back then, we didn't have all these fancy peashooters and jalapenos. All we had was guts. Guts and a spoon."

变身梨子[sic]
变身茄子可以让你在同一关卡内使用两份相同植物！ “我还记得七六年的那次僵尸战争，”变身茄子用沙哑苍老的声音说，“那时候，我们可没有这些花里胡哨的豌豆射手和火爆辣椒。我们只有勇气，勇气和勺子。” “啊，还有”[sic]变身茄子继续补充道，“我其实是洋芋。”

In English: Transforming Pear Imitaters let you use two of the same plant during a level! "I remember the Zombie Wars back in '76," says Imitater in a raspy, old-man's voice. "Back then, we didn't have all these fancy peashooters and jalapenos. All we had was guts. Guts and a spoon." "Ah, and also," added Imitater. "I am actually a tater."

Usage

The Imitater, when planted, will appear as himself, but after 3.2 seconds (1.5 seconds in the DS version) he will transform into his copied form, and also has the disadvantage of being defeated while transforming. The copied form costs as much and behaves just like the original plant. On most versions of the original Plants vs. Zombies, the plant will appear monochrome (silver) colored. On the iOS and Android versions, the Imitater version is the same color as the regular plant. Imitated explosives will explode, and an Imitater Tall-nut has the same health as a regular one (but can be jumped over before turning into the imitated Tall-nut, and can be eaten by the zombies at the same rate as eating regular plants).

Note: The Imitater cannot copy upgrade plants such as the Gloom-shroom or the Cob Cannon without hacking. He is also unable to imitate more than one plant at once or himself.

In Plants vs. Zombies, it is recommended to choose the original seed packet as well or to use the original version of the plant before using the Imitater version. There is no clear benefit to having only the Imitater, as it requires time to transform but is otherwise identical to the original plant. Therefore, an Imitater can be eaten, crushed, or smashed by a zombie while transforming, ruining the player's advantage to copy the plant. So planting imitated plants like a Cherry Bomb should be planted further than a normal one from zombies.

Strategies

General

• Imitater allows the player to have two packets of the same basic plant at once, essentially halving the recharge time of its seed packet. This unique ability can be utilized in many different ways, depending on the difficulty of the level, as well as the player's goal when using Imitater.
  • In early stages of a defense, bringing an Imitater Sunflower or Sun-shroom along with the original will help the player set up their sun production much more rapidly.
  • An Imitater Potato Mine will help the player take out zombies much more quickly and economically when used in tandem with the original Potato Mine, allowing sun to be saved up for more expensive plants.
  • The most common choice for imitation is Imitater Pumpkin, which is most popular in most Survival: Endless strategies. Pumpkin and his Imitater counterpart allows the player to protect plants much more quickly and efficiently.
• Other great candidates for imitation also include:
  • Squash, Jalapeno, Cherry Bomb, Doom-shroom: These are highly efficient instant-kill plants with high to very high recharge times. Using an imitated seed packet will essentially allow the player to use two of each at once.
  • Ice-shroom: While not capable of destroying zombie on his own, Ice-shroom's ability to freeze all zombies on the screen is incredibly valuable, especially in Survival: Endless, where the hordes can be overwhelmingly massive.
  • Marigold: Marigolds are not offensive-oriented, but are very helpful if the player wants to earn extra money. Having an Imitater version of her will greatly help the player overcome her slow recharge time.
  • Puff-shroom: Puff-shrooms do not have strong firepower, but thanks to their cheap price and quick recharge, they act as highly efficient cannon-fodder that can be used to keep the massive Giga-gargantuar (and his normal counterpart) in place.
  • In the Seeing Stars mini-game, especially if the player is aiming to unlock the Shooting Star achievement, Starfruit can be imitated as well, in order to halve its recharge time. Imitater Starfruits can still be planted on spaces designated for Starfruits.
  • Most plants with "slow" or "very slow" recharge times are generally good candidates for imitation, but they might not be as effective as the ones listed above.

• It is important to note that Imitater can only imitate a single plant in each level.
• Additionally, he takes a short while to transform, and he is still vulnerable before transforming.
  • This means that he can still be eaten or crushed by zombies before he could turn into a different plant.
    • This is especially important to remember when using imitated versions of explosive instant-kills like Cherry Bomb and Doom-shroom. These plants need to planted near zombies to maximize their efficiency, but as mentioned above, the horde might destroy him before he could turn into the explosive plant, essentially wasting precious resources in the process.

Related achievements

	Morticulturalist Collect all 49 plants.

	Book Learner Fill out the Suburban Almanac.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Imitater.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Imitater
German	Imitator
Spanish	Imitadora
French	Imitateur
Italian	Clone
Japanese	イミテーター Imitētā
Korean	따라쟁이 Ttalajaeng-i
Dutch	Napieper
Brazilian Portuguese	Imitadora
Russian	Имитатор
Simplified Chinese	变身茄子 Biànshēn Qiézi 复制豆 Fùzhì Dòu 变身梨子 Biànshēn Lízi	lit. "Transforming Eggplant" lit. "Copy Bean" lit. "Transforming Pear"
Traditional Chinese	變身茄子 Biànshēn Qiézi	lit. "Transforming Eggplant"

Trivia

• When he spins without any plant copied, he crashes the game.
• In his Suburban Almanac entry, it says that he remembers the Zombie Wars of '76 (1976, to be exact), obviously meaning there was more than one battle that zombies kept losing, since there are still humans.
• His statistics can be shown on the top left hand corner of the Suburban Almanac, where there is a small picture of itself that is only found when it is bought. This can be hard for players to find on their own, so the Tree of Wisdom will tell them it is there.
  • In iOS and Android versions, it will have a regular seed packet icon in the Almanac since the Tree of Wisdom does not appear in those versions.

Imitater in the Suburban Almanac

• When flattened, he will turn into the flat version of the copied plant with its original color, even before transforming.
• In iOS and Android versions, he turns into an exact replica without the black and white color, although the seed packet appears greenish.
• He cannot copy upgrade plants, although the imitated plant can be upgraded. If an imitated plant is upgraded, it returns to the "normal" color of the upgrade.
  • Gray-scaled textures for upgrades do exist, though; one would just need to hack them into the game.
• Imitated plants are gray, yet the projectiles they fire are exactly the same color as the original projectile.
• Since the copied plants of the Imitater are not monochrome in the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad versions, the seed packets for the copied plants are different from the PC and Mac version. In the iPod Touch and iPhone version, the seed packets are shaded by a green square. In the iPad, the seed packet is shaded by a yellow square.
• His transforming animation is not shown on the DS version. Instead, he stands for a while, then spins quickly once and turn into the imitated plant with soil under it and a planting sound.
• In the DS version, when an Imitater transforms into a Torchwood, it won't be grayscale but instead will be green with blue flames.
• When he copies a plant, the copied plant is in full health, even if he was damaged before it transforms.
• In the Xbox Live Arcade version of Plants vs. Zombies, in Co-op Mode, the game will never let the player pick him when there are already three seeds or more selected.
• His seed packet says "Bloom and Doom" instead of the full "Bloom and Doom Seed Co."
• He is the only plant that can be planted on any environment since his properties depend on the plant he is supposed to imitate.
• When an imitated Chomper eats a zombie, the zombie's arm turns black and white, because the zombie arm is considered as the Chomper's sprite.
• In the iPad version, if you choose the original plant first, then open the Imitater overlay, the seed packet will darken as if it were not recommended for the level.
• In an update to the Android version of the game, his seed packet changed color when in the seed selection screen to gray, but in-game, it is still green and imitated plants are still full-colored.
• If the player uses the Android imitating upgrade plants glitch, and imitates Imitater, he will keep imitating himself over and over again.
  • This is also true for PC version if one tries to imitate Imitater through hacking.
• He is the only plant in the entire game who does not have a specific sun cost.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies: Endless Edition

• He is the only plant that can be bought with coins.
• If covered by a hero, he will stop transforming until the hero is moved away.
• His drowning countdown will reset after transforming.

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