Octo Zombie is the twelfth zombie encountered in Big Wave Beach and an environment modifier in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He can throw octopi at plants to disable them. The octopi will occupy the tile until they are destroyed. He prioritizes the plants in his lane, and then moves on to the ones in other lanes. If there are no plants to bind, he will then proceed to the player's house.
Octo Zombie has five octopi strapped on to different parts of his body. The first one is a large, blue octopus on his head, next on his shoulder is a big orange one. The orange octopus is attached to his shoulder and it covers his chest with its two tentacles, with the third tentacle wrapping up the arm of Octo Zombie, and its remaining tentacles on his back. The third one is a pink-colored octopus, found on his left wrist, entangled, while the fourth one is a violet-colored octopus strapped on to his right wrist. The fifth octopus flashes a vibrant orange like color that entangles the left leg of Octo Zombie. The blue-colored octopus on Octo Zombie's head has eight white circles on it. Both of its eyes move in different directions as seen in his in-game renders.
Octo Zombie also is a muscular type of zombie as he has slight muscles and abs showing on his body. He simply wears a leopard-spot swimming trunk for design.
Almanac entry
Octo Zombie
TOUGHNESS
Hardened
SPEED
Creeper
Throws octopi at your plants to bind them up.
Special: bound plants are passive until their octopus is destroyed
It started innocently enough. One day, Octo Zombie decided to get a pet octopus. But he loved that octopus so much, he got another and another... and another. Next thing you know, he was volunteering at an octopus rescue shelter. And now, well, no one wants to tell him, but he's pretty much the undersea equivalent of a cat lady. You should see how many are living at his house. It's quite startling.
Overview
Octo Zombie absorbs 910 damage before its head falls off and stops attacking. He degrades upon absorbing 455 damage before dying at 910 damage. An octopus absorbs 400 damage and does not degrade. When he appears on the lawn, he will wrap a plant into octopus after 7-9 seconds of his arrival, after that, he will have 11-14 seconds to throw another octopus.
Octo Zombie is a very dangerous and difficult zombie, especially if many come in groups. He also uses his disadvantage, which is his speed, to his advantage in order to keep on bombarding your plants with octopi, ensuring that faster zombies, such as Surfer Zombies or Deep Sea Gargantuars, absorb all of your offensive plants' projectiles, like Wizard Zombie. However, unlike Wizard Zombie, Octo Zombie's ability can easily be reversed with the right defenses. Keep in mind that he targets plants in his lane first. Therefore, instant-kill plants such as Cherry Bombs or Tangle Kelp are more likely vital for stopping them from binding plants. Using a Kernel-pult may also help. Using Plant Food on it will ensure he gets buttered.
Kill him quickly, as he can bind up an unlimited number of plants. This could result in all plants being bound up and lead to you using tons of coins for Power Ups and Plant Food to kill the Octo Zombie and remove the octopi. If possible, keep all your instant kill plants at your disposal. This zombie can be a major pain when he is combined with Fisherman Zombies, Surfer Zombies, and Deep Sea Gargantuars. This zombie should be killed with as few octopi thrown as possible; without plants that can shoot anywhere on the lawn or backwards, you are going to have a very difficult time clearing the octopi and defending your house. If none of the above techniques work correctly, resort to Power Ups.
Of all the types of plants, Magnifying Grass can kill him the fastest with two shots, costing 100 sun, and is useful for freeing other bound plants. However, sun can be in short supply in the levels this zombie appears in, especially if other zombies get in the way. If this happens, use an instant kill on him quickly before he ensnares too many plants. Split Pea and Bonk Choy are useful for both attacking the Octo Zombie from behind (he cannot attack plants behind him) as well as clearing out octopi. A group of Snapdragons or Cold Snapdragons can destroy bound octopi around themselves quickly, and more can be planted to flank Octo Zombies from their sides. Pokra is also a great counter due to her high melee range and DPS allowing her to hit two of them ahead of her, while Gloom Vine can further support that in a similar fashion to multi-directional attackers.
Of the plants introduced in Big Wave Beach, Tangle Kelp and Banana Launcher are most effective. Banana Launcher can kill one or more Octo Zombies in one blast no matter where they are, making it especially useful if he appears in ambushes, as well as destroy bound octopi and zombies trying to pass through at the same time.
Starfruit, Rotobaga and Phat Beet are also useful against Octo Zombies; a lawn full of Starfruits, Rotobagas, or Phat Beets can easily get rid of octopi thrown due to their rapid, multi-directional attacks. Establish an early Rotobaga/Starfruit defense for maximum potential against octopi. If you have Gloom Vine, you can also use a horde of them along with your usual plants, as they do not occupy space.
Since Octo Zombie always targets the plant in the lead position first, you can stall him by planting sacrificial plants in the front when he appears, such as Puff-shrooms or even extra Sunflowers or Sun-shrooms. You can also dig up a plant that is about to get hit with an octopus, causing Octo Zombie to miss and waste an attack; this can be looped using plants with fast recharge times like Puff-shrooms. Like Wizard Zombie, he will retaliate against plants he encounters within biting range with an immediate octopus binding, but he will otherwise stop to eat anything he cannot bind, such as Gumnut's gum or Infi-nut's Plant Food effect. Iceberg Lettuce cannot be bound by octopi and simply freezes the zombie upon contact.
Toadstool or Chomper can destroy octopi without chewing, making them an ideal counter, though they should be dug up or fed Plant Food if either of them eats a zombie.
Note that Electric Currant's fence will be disabled if one of them was trapped by an octopus. However, Power Vine's won't.
Hot Potato can remove an octopus where she is planted if she is lvl 5 or above. This does not apply to the Chinese version. An alternate way to remove octopi is to simply shovel up plants when octopi are heading for them. You will need to pay close attention, however, and this strategy becomes less viable the more they appear.
A glitch can occur when the player feeds a plant with plant food while an octopus is already coming in for that plant. The octopus will bind the plant like normal, but as soon the octopus is destroyed, the plant will continue with its plant food effect, and when it finished, stay in the powered-up and invulnerable state, providing an excellent defense (as the plant cannot be hurt or destroyed by any means). Do note that if it was a plant that normally does something (like shoot projectiles, produce sun, etc), they will no longer do that specific thing.
If one were to exploit this glitch, they can completely block out lanes (possibly all five) so no zombie can get through. The only zombies that could get through are flying zombies, but they don’t normally appear in levels that also have Octo-Zombies in them
Tiki Torch-er
Octo Zombies, along with Deep Sea Gargantuars and Fisherman Zombies are very dangerous when in large numbers. However, unlike Pirate Captain Zombies, Octo Zombies cannot use their abilities off the game's screen, making this zombie easier to deal with. In large quantities, Octo Zombies have a tendency to all target the same plant, wasting their attacks and stalling each other indirectly, making it easy to exploit if you have the right plants. This zombie is especially deadly when paired with Fisherman Zombies and Surfer Zombies. You will need to have powerful plants like Ghost Pepper (which can be planted on water, and is immune to the Octo Zombie's ability) at your disposal to prevent zombies from eating your brains.
Balance changes
Update 3.0.1 (Official Release)
▲ Health increased from 480 health to 1300 health
▲ Octopi health increased from 320 health to 400 health
Update 6.3.1
▼ Health decreased from 1300 health to 910 health
Gallery
Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Octo Zombie.
Please note that only official translations are used.
Language
Name
Description
English
Octo Zombie
German
Okto-Zombie
Spanish
Pulpozombi
French
Poulpo-Zombie
Italian
Zombi poliparo
Brazilian Portuguese
Octozumbi
Simplified Chinese
章鱼僵尸 Zhāngyú Jiāngshī
Lit. "Octopus Zombie"
Trivia
His character design seems to have been inspired by two beach-themed references.
His physique and leopard-print swimming trunks is based on 1950's bodybuilder Charles Atlas, especially his appearance in his famous comic strip advert "The Insult That Made a Man out of Mac."
Octopi are a common trope in beach-themed cartoons and comics, especially in the 20th century, as either antagonists or as a visual gag in where a character becomes entangled in one and struggles to get free.
So far, he is the only zombie without visible eyes, as the blue octopus covers them.
It is also the only octopus that has moving pupils.
He is similar to Wizard Zombie as both can immobilize the player's plants. Unlike the sheep that the Wizard Zombies use, the octopi can be destroyed directly, but not when the Octo Zombie is destroyed.
Octopi can bind up Tall-nuts, despite them being bigger than the octopus.
The dying animation of the octopi is very similar to the sheep, as they both seem to expand when they disappear.
After an octopus is destroyed, it will turn into what appears to be octopus sushi.
This is similar to Zombie Chicken's electrocution animation, where it might transform into a bucket of fried chicken.
The sushi might also reference calamari, a dish made from squid, as evident from the grid item and projectile's codenames, both of which somehow also refer to it as a squid.
The sushi also resembles to the one Wasabi Whip cuddles in its Zen Garden animation.
Despite having different colored octopi strapped to his body, this zombie will always throw the orange one, and since it respawns, he can technically trap an unlimited amount of plants.
Similar to Pianist Zombie, his toughness is listed as Hardened in his Almanac entry, but it's closer to "Dense" after the durability nerf.
For some reason, the Octopi he throws are immune to Blover/Hurrikale, even though the zombie himself actually isn't if he's knocked airborne.
If the player dig ups a plant before an octopus covers it, the Octopus despawns with it.
Octopi will not survive underwater when being indirectly moved by Fisherman Zombie or when the Lily Pad under them is eaten/destroyed, despite being aquatic animals. Exceptions may occur on naturally waterborne plants like Guacodile or Tangle Kelp.
If there is an octopus behind an Infi-nut's force field, when a Surfer Zombie uses his surfboard to crush, both the octopus and the bound plant will be destroyed.
In the soft release of the 3.0.1 update, Octo Zombie absorbed 480 damage, and the octopi absorbed 320 damage.
Octo Zombie was featured on the 3.0 update's icon.
As of the 4.1.1 update, Octo Zombie (along with Troglobite, Arcade Zombie, Jurassic Bully, and All-Star Zombie) has a unique burnt and zapped animation.
However, this change doesn't apply in Chinese Version (except All-Star Zombie).
As of the 3.8.1 update, he can no longer throw octopi when outside the lawn.
He can still throw octopi off-screen in the current version of the Chinese version.
An Octo Zombie shrunken by Shrinking Violet will still throw normal-sized octopi, and they will have the same durability.
