Newspaper Zombie is a zombie encountered in Plants vs. Zombies. He is the first new zombie encountered in the Night stage, and the sixth zombie overall encountered in Adventure Mode. He has a newspaper that he holds upside-down, acting as a shield for this zombie.
When the player's plants destroy the newspaper he holds, he pauses, a question mark briefly appears above his head, and then he will make an angry sound and start raging, then quickly charge forward at the player's plants in a rage. The color of the outline of his eyes also changes from black to red. Lobber plants, Fume-shrooms, Gloom-shrooms, and flaming peas damage both the zombie and the newspaper at the same time.
The enraged sounds Newspaper Zombie makes after discovering his newspaper is destroyed
Suburban Almanac entry
Newspaper Zombie
His newspaper provides limited defense.
Toughness: low
Newspaper Toughness: low
Speed: normal, then fast (after losing newspaper)
Newspaper Zombie was *this* close to finishing his Sudoku puzzle. No wonder he's freaking out.
(China only)(Archived content)
蟠桃僵尸
桃子僵尸
强度: 低
桃子强度:低
速度:正常,而后快(失去桃子后)
桃子僵尸十分珍惜手里的宝贵蟠桃,难怪他这么反常。
In English: Peach Zombie
Peach Zombie
Toughness: Low
Peach Toughness: Low
Speed: normal, then fast (after losing peach) Peach zombies cherish the precious peaches in their hands very much.
Blame him for being so weird.
Overview
Newspaper Zombie absorbs 420 damage and his appearance changes upon absorbing 50, 100, 150 (when the newspaper is destroyed), and 285 damage (where its arm falls off) before dying at 420 damage. When the newspaper is destroyed, he starts to sprint.
The newspaper is useless against lobber plants, instant kills, and Fume-shroom and Gloom-shroom because they can bypass his newspaper. Spikeweed and Spikerock also make his newspaper useless by attacking him from below. The player can also use plants that fire backwards, such as the back of a Split Pea or Gloom-shroom, because the newspaper is on the opposite side from them. In Wall-nut Bowling and Wall-nut Bowling 2, Newspaper Zombie loses his newspaper after being hit with one Wall-nut, and dies after a second hit like Conehead Zombie.
Since Newspaper Zombie pauses and then charges very quickly towards the end of the row after the player's plants destroy his newspaper, the player will need to be fast in order to kill him. Snow Pea, Winter Melon, or Ice-shroom are an effective counter against this since they can slow his movement, leaving plenty of time to kill him. If the player is facing multiple Newspaper Zombies, Ice-shrooms can be used effectively to paralyze and kill them, or the player could just use lobber plants (preferably Melon-pult or Winter Melon).
Gallery
Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Newspaper Zombie.
When its newspaper is rotated 180 degrees, the newspaper's front cover is really the back cover, and thus, the title is at the end.
Newspaper Zombie has the second lowest physical health out of all the zombies in the first game (only the Imps in I, Zombie are weaker, since they only take three normal damage shots to destroy). The zombie itself absorbs only 9, while his newspaper takes 8, so he in total absorbs 17.
Newspaper Zombie's glasses are available in the Xbox Live Marketplace for 80 Microsoft Points.
When Newspaper Zombie's head falls off, it is a regular Zombie's, not his own. He shares this with Jack-in-the-Box Zombie. However his glasses will still appear falling off.
If Newspaper Zombie bites a Garlic and loses his newspaper right after, he will bite the Garlic a second time before switching lanes.
If Newspaper Zombie bites a Garlic after losing his newspaper, he will not make his angry expression and he will instead move fast with a normal face.
When the player enters somewhere else and Plants vs. Zombies is still running or they simply press spacebar, when they come back Newspaper Zombie will appear above the "Resume Game" tab.
If a Newspaper Zombie gets hit by a Lawn Mower or a Giant Wall-nut, a question mark will appear over his head for a brief moment, as the newspaper gets destroyed before the zombie himself.
The title of the newspaper is "ZOMBIE," and there is also a picture of a head on it.
There is a glitch on the DS version where a Melon-Pult or Winter-Melon's splash damage breaks a Newspaper Zombie's newspaper, it will start running in place.
This glitch can be hard to notice as the Newspaper's Zombies health will be so low by then that it will most likely die soon after.
There is also a glitch on the online version that even if he has not lost his newspaper, he will still have angry eyes when eating.
Newspaper Zombie is officially and technically considered a shield zombie because he holds the newspaper up in front of him, it protects him from damage, and it has all the traits of a standard shield. However, there is one small exception to its shield capabilities - Being made of paper, it can't block incendiary splash damage from peas ignited by Torchwood.
In Plants vs. Zombies Adventures and Plants vs. Zombies 2, the Barrel Zombie and Pharaoh Zombie are identical in movement characteristics to the Newspaper Zombie, in the sense both move faster after their shield object is destroyed, except the Barrel Zombie runs out of embarrassment, Pharaoh Zombie runs because he is lighter, and Newspaper Zombie runs out of rage.
In the Java version of the game, the newspaper does not protect him from freezing effects.