Newspaper Zombie (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

For other uses, see Newspaper Zombie (disambiguation).

Newspaper Zombie is a zombie encountered in Plants vs. Zombies 2 as the first new zombie encountered in Modern Day. His newspaper absorbs damage for him until its destruction, after which he gains a damage and speed boost.

Audio

Sound	Description
	After rage
	Newspaper is damaged/destroyed
	The enraged sounds Newspaper Zombie makes after discovering his newspaper is destroyed
	Mumbling/reading newspaper

Almanac entry

Newspaper Zombie
	TOUGHNESS Hardened SPEED Hungry Newspaper protects zombie, who is then enraged when it is destroyed. Special: becomes a flighty zombie once the newspaper is destroyed You can't really blame him for getting so upset; he was THIS close to finishing the crossword (23 down was "Brains").

Overview

Newspaper Zombie is a zombie initially from Plants vs. Zombies. Here his abilities remain the same, but now he and his newspaper have significantly higher toughness and speed than in the first game, and when enraged he can run and eat much faster, even to the point where he can one-hit-kill plants with low defense. Lobbed-shot plants and Fume-shrooms will not ignore his newspaper, however, poisonous plants like Shadow-shroom and Goo Peashooter can.

The Newspaper Zombie absorbs 1260 damage per shot and his appearance changes upon absorbing 270, 540, 800 (when the newspaper is destroyed), and 1030 (when his arm is lost) before dying at 1260 damage per shot. His attacks and running speed are four times as high when enraged compared to while the newspaper is still present.

Newspaper Zombie's Beghouled variant has less health, only 325 for the zombie itself and 600 for the newspaper.

Encounters

• Player's House: Piñata Party
• Far Future: Piñata Party
• Jurassic Marsh: Piñata Party
• Modern Day: Days 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 17-31, 35, 36, 39, 40, 44, Highway to the Danger Room and "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 1
• Arena: Escape Root's Blitz Tournament, Shadow Peashooter's Tournament, Cactus' Tournament, Enforce-mint's Tournament, Torchwood's Tournament, Grapeshot's Tournament, Electrici-tea & Friends VS Zomboss Tournament, Cactus' Boosterama Tournament, Pumpkin's Tournament, Torchwood's Boosterama Tournament, Blooming Heart & Friends VS Zomboss Tournament, Chomper's Tournament, Chomper's Boosterama Tournament, Tumbleweed & Friends VS Zomboss Tournament, Puffball's Tournament

Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Chinese version) (China only)

• Player's House: Premium Plant Quest: Squash
• Modern Day: World Cup, all levels except Days 1, 2, 25, 26 and 27

Strategies

Newspaper Zombie is much more dangerous than he usually is, as both the zombie himself and his newspaper are tougher. In addition to this, the newspaper absorbs most forms of attacks and when destroyed, he gains a dramatic boost. This means that most lobbed shot plants and area-of-effect plants are generally ineffective as they cannot defeat this zombie without destroying his newspaper first. However, Snow Pea, Winter Melon, Cold Snapdragon and Missile Toe are good choices as they can now slow him down and allow more damage to be dealt against this zombie since the Newspaper no longer negates various effects. Kernel-pult's butter, Primal Peashooter and Apple Mortar can also be helpful as they can stun or knock back the Newspaper Zombie so that this zombie is slightly easier to deal with. Chard Guard and Hurrikale can also give you more time to destroy him. Plants that can ignore his newspaper, such as instant kills with very high damage or those that poison him, can also be useful, as they can typically defeat Newspaper Zombie immediately, hence negating his ability.

Without the use of Plant Food, Hypno-shrooms are surprisingly effective against the Newspaper Zombie, since they ignore his newspaper and completely remove him as a threat. This works because Newspaper Zombie's very high 800 DPS can destroy many zombies in seconds. However, it should be noted that this strategy is only effective on lanes with large amounts of zombies, and many zombies at once can overwhelm it without the use of Stunion, Ice Bloom, or any similar plant to completely immobilize them.

Balance changes

Update 6.3.1

• ▼ Health decreased from 650 health to 460 health

Related achievement

	Hot Off the Presses Set a Newspaper Zombie's newspaper on fire

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Newspaper Zombie.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Newspaper Zombie
German	Zeitung-Zombie
Spanish	Zombi lector	Reader Zombie
French	Zombie journal
Italian	Zombi informato
Brazilian Portuguese	Zumbi Informado
Simplified Chinese	报纸僵尸 Bàozhǐ jiāngshī	From bàozhǐ and jiāngshī

Trivia

• When the newspaper is rotated 180 degrees, the newspaper's front cover is really the back cover, and thus, the title is at the end.
• In all Chinese regions, he is named "读报僵尸" (Newspaper-reading Zombie) instead of "报纸僵尸".
• Before being added into Plants vs. Zombies 2, Pharaoh Zombie could be seen as an Ancient Egypt counterpart. The two are nearly identical in movement characteristics in the sense both move faster after their shield object is destroyed, except Pharaoh Zombie runs because he is lighter, and Newspaper Zombie runs out of rage.
• Newspaper Zombie's newspaper now takes significantly more hits than it did in the first game. When he is enraged, he eats plants extremely fast, and also runs as fast as a Zombie Chicken or Ice Weasel.
  • The increase in health may have been from the fact that the area where he resides is the final world, as opposed for being extremely weak and a very unnoticeable enemy like in the first game.
  • If he was unchanged, he would have been a weaker Pharaoh Zombie.
• Newspaper Zombie's newspaper lights on fire when hit by a fire-based plant such as Snapdragon. However, this appears to be purely cosmetic, and Newspaper Zombie does not become enraged due to the fire.
  • The newspaper also does not take a shorter time to destroy.
  • This is probably intended for use of the achievement Hot Off the Presses.
  • In his Almanac icon, his newspaper is on fire.
  • Unlike Explorer Zombie's torch or Prospector Zombie's dynamite, ice plants can't extinguish the newspaper's fire. This is shared with Super-Fan Imp's dynamite.
• Grumbling noises can be heard from Newspaper Zombie when he is reading his newspaper.
  • If one listens closely, Newspaper Zombie actually speaks and says things like "23 down is brains."
  • According to the credits of the game, the Newspaper Zombie is voiced by Chris Sampson.
• His almanac entry description is a nod to the first game, as both mention the reason why he gets enraged when his newspaper gets destroyed; he was finishing a puzzle included in the newspaper.
  • However, in the first game, the almanac entry says that he nearly finished a sudoku puzzle, while in the second game, the almanac entry states that he nearly finished a crossword puzzle.
• When his newspaper is gone, he makes the same grunt sound from the first game.
• Unlike the first game, his eyes do not turn red when he is angry.
• If he is killed when he holds the newspaper, his enrage sound and the destroyed newspaper's sound can still be heard.
• In the Chinese version, he and Sunday Edition Zombie used to be slower after they lost their newspapers. They were buffed to normal on the 2.2.1 update.
• The newspaper is different in this game, reading "Daily Brains" for the title.
  • The name "Daily Brains" may be a reference to the fact that several news services have the word "daily" in the title.
  • If one looks carefully, they can see what looks like Crazy Dave in the image in the newspaper.
  • The news on the main page is: "Garden gnomes spotted."
    • This could be a teaser to Infinity Time for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.
• When he is eating a plant and doesn't have his left arm, the newspaper will appear to float. This also applies to Sunday Edition Zombie.
• For unknown reasons, his sprite sheet features a Roadcone and a Bucket.
• If you blow up a Newspaper Zombie, he makes the same noise he does when he loses his newspaper.
• If Hocus Crocus teleports Newspaper Zombie, he will lose his speed boost.
• Weirdly, Newspaper Zombie's Beghouled variant lacks certain sound effects, notably the one that plays when he gets enraged.
  • Beghouled Newspaper is also the only Beghouled variant to appear in the chinese version of PVZ2, where he weirdly appears from Portals and in the Zombot Mark II fight.
    • The Newspaper Zombie in Two-Player Mode even has the codename new_pvp_beghouled_newspaper, despite that mode having nothing to do with Beghouled.

See also

• Newspaper
• Hot Off the Presses
• Sunday Edition Zombie

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