Primal Potato Mine

For other uses, see Potato Mine (disambiguation).

Primal Potato Mine
Primal Potato Mines cost more than regular Potato Mines, but they arm more quickly and do damage over a larger area.
Statistics
Sun Cost	50
Recharge	25 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	2400 damage
Arming Time	5 seconds
Area	3x3
Usage	Single, On Contact
Family	Bombard-mint
Plant Food effect	Immediately arms and spawns multiple copies of itself.
Usage	Single use, delayed activation
Range	Affects area around it
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	50
Recharge	25 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	1800 damage
Arming Time	15 seconds
Range	On Contact
Area	3×3 AoE
Class	Special
Quality	Purple
Tags	Insta, explosive, area of effect, ash
Plant features	Brown plant, wild growth, weapon family, short
In-game statistics
Unlocked	Beating Jurassic Marsh - Day 23
Unlocked (China)	Collect 470 stars
Costumes
Code name	primalpotatomine
Primal Potato Mine doesn't consider himself to be primal. As far as he's concerned he's state-of-the-art. And who knows? Maybe he is.

“	Plant Primal Potato Mines to create powerful area-of-effect explosions.	”
—Penny

Primal Potato Mine is the fifth and final plant obtained in Jurassic Marsh in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He is the primal version of Potato Mine. He does 2400 damage in a 3x3 area and only takes 5 seconds to arm, while costing 50 sun instead of 25.

In the Chinese version, he costs 25 less sun in Jurassic Marsh.

Origins

Like his modern counterpart, Primal 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.

In the international version Primal Potato Mine's explosion onomatopea is is "SPUD OOP!!", a portmanteau of "spud" and "oop!" In the Chinese version, he reuses Potato Mine's sprites.

Although not specified to a single stegosaur, the back plates mostly resemble that of a Tuojiangosaurus.

Almanac entry

Note: The stats shown below only apply to Level 1.

Primal Potato Mine
	SUN COST 50 RECHARGE 25 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 2400 ARMING TIME 5 AREA 3x3 Usage Single, On Contact Bombard-mint Plant Food: Immediately arms and spawns multiple copies of itself. Primal Potato Mines cost more than regular Potato Mines, but they arm more quickly and do damage over a larger area. Primal Potato Mine doesn't consider himself to be primal. As far as he's concerned he's state-of-the-art. And who knows? Maybe he is.

Chinese version  (China only)

原始土豆地雷比普通土豆地雷要贵一些，但它们激活的[sic]非常快，而且会对大范围的敌人造成伤害。 用法：单次使用，延迟激活。[sic] 范围：周围所有区域 植物特征：褐色植物、狂野生长、武器家族、矮个子 原始土豆地雷并不觉得自己很原始。对他来说，他是最前沿的科技。谁知道呢？或许他真的是。 In English: Primal Potato Mines cost a bit more than regular Potato Mines, but they arm very quickly, and do damage over enemies with larger area. Usage: single use, delayed activation Range: all area around it Plant feature: brown plant, wild growth, weapon family, short Primal Potato Mine doesn't think himself to be very primal. For him, he is the most cutting-edge technology. Who knows? Maybe he really is.

Upgrades

Primal Potato Mine about to create new Primal Potato Mines

A Primal Potato Mine being created and placed onto a tile

Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Primal Potato Mine will instantly arm himself (if unarmed) and will create two new and fully armed Primal Potato Mines on two random tiles, similar to his modern counterpart's plant food ability.

Costumed  (China only)

Primal Potato Mine will now create three fully armed Primal Potato Mines on three random tiles instead of two when given Plant Food.

Bombard-mint effect

When boosted by Bombard-mint, Primal Potato Mine's arm time will decrease to 2 seconds (1 second starting at level 8), his explosion damage is increased to 3200 damage and his explosion area will be larger as if he was at level 10.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Sluggish)	Starting Recharge	Toughness (Typical)	Arming Time (Mediocre)	Damage (Massive)	Area (3x3)
1	0	0	50	25 seconds	15 seconds	300 damage	5 seconds	2400 damage	Normal
2	10	1,000		24 seconds	14 seconds	350 damage	4 seconds	2800 damage	+ 1.13x
3	75	5,000		23 seconds	14 seconds	400 damage	4 seconds
4	200	10,000		22 seconds	13 seconds	450 damage	4 seconds
5	400	20,000		21 seconds	13 seconds	550 damage	3 seconds
6	750	30,000		20 seconds	12 seconds	600 damage	3 seconds	3200 damage	+ 1.25x
7	1,000	40,000		18 seconds	12 seconds	650 damage	3 seconds
8	1,250	50,000		17 seconds	11 seconds	700 damage	2 seconds
9	1,500	60,000		16 seconds	11 seconds	800 damage	2 seconds
10	2,000	75,000		15 seconds	10 seconds	900 damage	2 seconds

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Level upgrades  (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	[[File:{{{plant}}} Upgrade 1.png|x75px]] Fast Awakening 快速起床	Reduces arming time to 10 seconds. 部署时间加快40%，10秒后准备完毕。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Primal Potato Mine gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	[[File:{{{plant}}} Upgrade 2.png|x75px]] Super Fast Awakening 极速起床	Reduces arming time to 6 seconds. 部署时间加快80%，6秒后准备完毕。
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Primal Potato Mine gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Primal Potato Mine may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Primal Potato Mine gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Strategies

Primal Potato Mine is a significantly improved version of his modern counterpart, as his positive attributes can easily outweigh the slightly increased sun cost. Compared to Potato Mine's blast radius, Primal Potato Mine is nine times as large and can cover up to three lanes at once, allowing Primal Potato Mine to nuke many zombies, tombstones and frozen blocks, or in extreme cases apply pressure from another lane.

In addition, Primal Potato Mine suffers very little from his counterpart's arming time problem, and can be planted one space ahead of the zombies with the help of slowing plants. These factors combined makes Primal Potato Mine a highly useful plant both for offense and defense. If that wasn't enough, Plants with stunning effects such as E.M.Peach & Stunion can stop the zombies, long enough for the Primal Potato Mine to arm himself. Primal Potato Mine really shines once he reaches higher levels, in which the increased damage radius will allow one Primal Potato Mine in the middle row to damage zombies in every row.

Primal Potato Mine's Plant Food ability is extremely powerful simply for how devastating he is when alone. When multiple copies of him appear, the explosions will likely destroy most zombies on the right side of the lawn. Using Primal Potato Mine in conjunction with Tile Turnip or pre-generated Power Tiles is a viable strategy if there is a large amount of mold, plants, or obstacles like tombstones or ice blocks on the board, especially in Arena mode, as the Primal Potato Mine's explosion can still hit zombies through obstacles, not to mention he can usually defeat zombies with tough headwear items as his damage greatly exceeds their base health and ignores armor.

In Wild West, Primal Potato Mines can be used to deal with Chicken Wrangler Zombies as their explosion can take out all of the Zombie Chickens when timed perfectly, although this is usually considered overkill as there are many other better options for chickens. They can also deal with Pianist Zombies and the crowd of Cowboy Zombies who are switching lanes, as well as large hordes of Zombie Bulls.

In Far Future, Primal Potato Mines can destroy any mechanized zombies instantly within their damage area as they usually absorb just the amount of damage it inflicts. Using this in Terror from Tomorrow levels is recommended for stopping huge waves of mechs, especially when Mecha-Football Zombies appear as they ignore the plant, giving him time to arm. The only zombie to watch out for is Gargantuar Prime and Robo-Cone Zombie (if at level 1), as Primal Potato Mine cannot kill them in one hit.

Primal Potato Mines are very useful in Frostbite Caves for dealing with Troglobites, as he will not be crushed by them at all and can destroy many ice blocks at once.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, the player can pair him with Thyme Warp to defeat a large horde of zombies if used properly. Plant two Primal Potato Mines on the second and fourth row, then pile up the zombies by using a Thyme Warp. Using this strategy can hugely decrease the amount of zombies present on the lawn, including Hair Metal Gargantuars. Using this strategy has no problem in terms of sun cost as both plants cost little sun individually but their recharge can be a serious problem. Also, take note not to place the Primal Potato Mines too near or too far from the zombies, as putting them too near may end in them being eaten or prematurely activated and putting them too far may decrease the amount of defeated zombies as some zombies are significantly faster than others.

Do note that he is unable to hit aerial foes, such as the Bug Zombie. Use Blover to swiftly dispatch them.

Related achievements

	Bash Potato Defeat 7 zombies with a single Primal Potato Mine.

Gallery

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

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Primal Potato Mine
Simplified Chinese	原始土豆地雷
French	Mine patate préhistorique
German	Urzeit-Kartoffelmine
Italian	Tubero esplosivo cavernicolo
Brazilian Portuguese	Batatamina Primitiva
Spanish	Papapum primitiva

Trivia

• The duplicates from his Plant Food effect take a moment to arm, during which they can be eaten.
  • It is possible for the mine to be eaten before it arms, even during the arming animation.
• Like the original, Primal Potato Mine's explosion is not counted as a fire effect. As such, he will not defrost zombies that are affected by ice-based effects. As his explosion also does not use the charred animation, several things can happen:
  • Zombies defeated by it will only drop their heads. Those who do not will simply despawn.
  • Surfer Zombie drops his board when destroyed by the mine, unless he is shrunken.
• His ability to cover a 3x3 area around him is a reference to the temporary buff of Potato Mine where he was able to blow up grid objects tombstones and surfboards in a 3x3 area around him when he explodes.
• He (along with Potato Mine) will not be crushed by frozen blocks and arcade machines, but instead act as if they do not exist. This was coded to prevent said objects from crushing said plants.
  • This can also happen when he is struck by the Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur's missiles and lasers.
• Regardless of what stage he was in when defeated, Intensive Carrot will always revive him to his on-planting stage. The same applies for Potato Mine, Pea Pod, Sun-shroom, Strawburst, Escape Root, and Kiwibeast.
• When thrown away by Excavator Zombie, he instantly arms upon landing.
• He is the second adventure plant to be showcased in Arena, the first being Lightning Reed.
• Primal Potato Mine and Stunion are the only adventure plants to have their Epic Quest.
• If Plant Food is used on Primal Potato Mine at the end of the level, the clones will fly offscreen, not landing on a tile.
  • The same also happens with his regular variant and Chili Bean.

Specific to the Chinese version (China only)

• Despite his arming time here being the same as that of a regular Potato Mine, his almanac entry still says he arms quickly.

See also

• Potato Mine
• Cherry Bomb
• Grapeshot
• Escape Root
• Bombegranate
• Teleportato Mine
• Bash Potato

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