Potato Mine (Plants vs. Zombies)

For other uses, see Potato Mine (disambiguation).

Potato Mine is the fifth plant introduced in Plants vs. Zombies, and is unlocked after competing Level 1-5.

He is an explosive plant that, after being planted, takes 14 seconds (about the time it takes a regular Zombie or any other slow-moving zombie variant to walk three spaces) to arm himself before surfacing, during which he is vulnerable to attack. After that, Potato Mine will explode in a 1x1 area when a zombie comes into contact with him, dealing 1800 damage to all affected zombies and leaving behind a comic-esque "SPUDOW!".

Origins

Potato Mine is based on the real-life potato, the starchy, tuberous root portion of the plant Solanum tuberosum.

His name is a combination of "potato" and "land mine," an explosive device concealed under or on the ground designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks.

He was inspired by the film Swiss Family Robinson, as George Fan felt it was satisfying to watch a zombie step on the mine so as to be defeated and covered in mashed potatoes.

Potato Mine's word on the speech bubble when he explodes, "SPUDOW!!", is a portmanteau of "spud" and "kapow." Mines are also an underground cavern, referring to how Potato Mine is an underground plant.

Audio

Sound	Description
	Potato Mine explodes

History

Potato Mine is the fourth plant unlocked after the player beats Level 1-5. It takes 15 seconds to arm himself, and cannot be planted on a Lily Pad. Killing a zombie with a Potato Mine will net the player the SPUDOW! achievement.

Almanac entry

Potato Mine
Potato Mines pack a powerful punch, but they need a while to arm themselves. You should plant them ahead of zombies. They will explode on contact. Damage: massive Range: all zombies in a small area Usage: single use, delayed activation Some folks say Potato Mine is lazy, that he leaves everything to the last minute. Potato Mine says nothing. He's too busy thinking about his investment strategy. Cost: 25 Recharge: slow

Strategies

Because of his low cost and early availability, Potato Mine can be effective in the early part of the level for neutralizing the first few zombies, especially if the enemies in question are Conehead or Buckethead Zombies, who will pose serious difficulty against more conventional offensive plants. However, his arming period greatly hampers his usefulness in the long run, as the massive amount of threats will give Potato Mine little time to arm himself.

Potato Mine should be planted at least three squares or more in front of zombies with Basic speed in order to explode right when the threat approaches him. Defensive plants such as Wall-nut or Tall-nut can buy Potato Mine additional time for arming, as well as gather more zombies to increase Potato Mine's efficiency.

Potato Mine can also be planted behind Wall-nuts or Pumpkins to catch any Pole Vaulting Zombies that try to vault through. Similarly, they can be planted to make a Pole Vaulting Zombie jump early (even when unarmed), in addition to catching later zombies. An armed Potato Mine can also catch a subsurface Digger Zombie and instantly kill him, preventing him from rising up and attacking other plants.

Potato Mines can also be used against Gargantuars, but it should be remembered that two Potato Mines will be required to kill one since they can absorb up to 3000 damage. Potato Mine is highly effective against the Zombie Bobsled Teams, capable of destroying the bobsled along with all four zombies if armed and planted right next to the ice.

If Potato Mine is planted inside a Pumpkin, only a few zombies with unusually large hitboxes can trigger him without eating the Pumpkin first, such as Football Zombie. Therefore, it is generally a bad idea to put Potato Mine inside a Pumpkin. However, this can be a good strategy to clump up several zombies together by using the Pumpkin to group them together but Wall Nuts and Tall Nuts are more efficient for this purpose. In ZomBotany and ZomBotany 2, Potato Mines cannot be hit by peas, even when armed, which makes them an excellent choice for defeating zombies without their ranged attacks getting in the way. Like other short plants, if they are planted in Flower Pots, they can be hit by peas.

Related achievements

	Pyromaniac Complete a level using only Explosive Plants to kill zombies.

	SPUDOW! Blow up a zombie using a Potato Mine.

	Morticulturalist Collect all 49 plants.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Potato Mine.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Potato Mine
German	Kartoffelmine
Spanish	Patatapum	A portmanteau of "Patata" (Potato) and "¡Pum!" (Onomatopoeia for an explosion)
French	Mine patate
Italian	Tubero esplosivo
Japanese	ポテトマイン Poteto Main
Korean	감자지뢰 Gamjajiloe
Dutch	Plofpieper
Brazilian Portuguese	Batatamina
Russian	Картофельная Мина
Simplified Chinese	土豆地雷 Tǔdòu Dìléi 小雷雷 Xiǎo Léi Lei	Lit. "Potato Mine" Lit. "Little Mine Mine" as nickname in Plants vs. Zombies: Endless Edition
Traditional Chinese	馬鈴薯地雷 Mǎlíngshǔ Dìléi 小雷雷 Xiǎo Léi Lei	Lit. "Potato Mine" Lit. "Little Mine Mine" as nickname in Plants vs. Zombies: Endless Edition

Trivia

• His appearance resembles a mole, as they both are found underground, and both have visible front teeth sticking out.
• In Plants vs. Zombies: Timepocalypse, one can see Potato Mine's entire body, which resembles the potatoes catapulted when Potato Mine is given Plant Food.
• In the Nintendo DS version, Imitater Potato Mine's light will blink.
• He can only be taken by Bungee Zombie while unarmed, as a Bungee Zombie will die in the explosion if he encounters an armed Potato Mine. A glitch in I, Zombie levels in the Nintendo DS version of the game shows that one can steal an armed Potato Mine and he only shows half of his body.
• In the online version of the game, instead of getting him on Level 1-5, the player gets Squash.
• He is one of the twelve plants that appear in the seed selection screen after obtaining the Grave Buster on the online version, the others are Ice-shroom, Doom-shroom, Lily Pad, Threepeater, Tangle Kelp, Jalapeno, Spikeweed, Torchwood, Tall-nut, Cactus, and Blover.
• His red light will flash faster as the zombie gets nearer, like a sensor.
• The Zen Garden Potato Mine will not have a flashing red light normally, but if held by a Gardening Glove or inside a Wheel Barrow, the red light will be permanently on. The red light will also be on when the player is about to plant a Potato Mine but has not planted him yet. This only applies to the PC version of the game.
• He is the only plant that can be eaten from underground by a Digger Zombie. This only happens when unarmed - If armed, the Potato Mine instead explodes and will destroy the Digger Zombie, which no other plant can do so in the entire game - Magnet Shroom only forces him out of the ground instead of dealing damage.
• In the Nintendo DS version of the game, right when a zombie reaches the Potato Mine, the zombie's eating animation's frame is shown right before the Potato Mine explodes.
• If an unarmed Potato Mine is crushed (via Gargantuar, Zomboni, Catapult Zombie or Squash Zombie), an image of a crushed armed Potato Mine instead of a flattened version of an antenna will be shown.
  • However this will have no effect on any zombies (including Gargantuar, Zomboni, Catapult Zombie or Squash Zombie themselves) that pass the crushed sprite of an armed Potato Mine as showing a sprite of a crushed plant are now counted as defeated by the game, with the sprite simply shows to show that a plant is defeated by being crushed before despawning after 5 seconds.
• In the Nintendo DS version of the game, Potato Mine's look in the game is more reminiscent of its artwork than its PC appearance.
• He is the only explosive plant that cannot kill Balloon Zombies when they are flying.

References

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