Red Stinger (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

For more information about this character, see Red Stinger.

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For other uses, see Red Stinger (disambiguation).

Red Stinger
Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home, and become more defensive further from it.
Statistics
Sun Cost	150
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	30 damage
Range	Straight
Family	Appease-mint
Plant Food effect	Fires a laser beam that pierces through all zombies in its column [sic], dealing damage and temporarily slows their movement.
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	150
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	20 damage
Attack Rate	2 seconds
Range	Whole Lane to the Right
Area	Single Target
Class	Special
Quality	Blue
Tags	Damage, defensive
Plant features	Red plant
In-game statistics
Unlocked	Beating Lost City - Day 1
Unlocked (China)	Beating Lost City - Day 1
Costumes
Code name	redstinger
Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."

Red Stinger is the first plant obtained in Lost City in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He was first revealed in the trailer for Lost City Part 1, then more information was released with the Lost City Part 1 developer diary.

Red Stinger changes form depending on where he is planted; if he is moved to another column by any means (ex: Escape Root, Mecha-Football Zombie), he will switch form accordingly:

• When planted on the first three columns to the left, Red Stinger will fire two petals every 2 seconds, which together deal 60 damage at a time and have the same health as a regular plant.
• If Red Stinger is planted in the next three columns to the right, he will be more defensive, increasing its health to 900 damage, but it will fire just one petal dealing 30 damage every 2 seconds.
• If he is planted on the last three columns on the right, he will be a defensive plant that can absorb 1500 damage, but he will not be able to attack. He changes appearance when absorbing 375, 750, and 1125 damage.

Origins

A real-life Etlingera elatior in which Red Stinger is based on.

Red Stinger is based on the Etlingera elatior, known as the torch ginger. He is a flower found in tropical areas. The meaning of his in-game name, however, is left unclear. As he does not sting anything, the most probable possibility is that "Red Stinger" is actually a pun on "red ginger," an alternative name of the plant he is based on. Internally, the projectiles are named "stingers," indicating that they are the stinging part.

Almanac entry

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

Red Stinger
	SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 0 DAMAGE 30 RANGE Straight Appease-mint Plant Food: Fires a laser beam that pierces through all zombies in its column, dealing damage and temporarily slows their movement. Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home, and become more defensive further from it. Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."

Chinese version  (China only)

红针花靠近大本营时火力全开发射子弹，远离老家则会提升防御性[sic]。 植物特征：红色植物 对于红针花来说灵活柔韧性是极其重要的关键。“我确确实实每天早上都作拉伸练习，”他说。“这对精神与肉体时刻保持灵敏反应十分重要。” In English: Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to base, being far from home makes it increase defensivity. Plant feature: red plant For Red Stinger flexibility is of key importance. "I do indeed do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's very important for staying mentally and physically nimble."

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Red Stinger's Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Red Stinger fires a focused laser beam, 50% slowing and dealing a total of 690 damage to all zombies in the lane.

Costumed  (China only)

Red Stinger will now fire two laser beams, doing in total 1380 damage.

Appease-mint effect

When boosted by Appease-mint, Red Stinger will do an additional 200 damage per stinger in the back three columns, and an additional 150 damage per stinger in the middle three columns.

Level upgrade

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Fast)	Toughness (Elevated)*			Damage (Moderate)*		Projectile Velocity	Range
					Left	Middle	Right	Left	Middle
1	0	0	150	5 seconds	300 damage	900 damage	1500 damage	30 damage	15 damage	Normal	Straight
2	10	1,000	150	5 seconds	600 damage	1200 damage	2000 damage	40 damage	20 damage
3	75	5,000	150	4.5 seconds				50 damage	25 damage	+ 1.6x
4	200	10,000	150	4.5 seconds				60 damage	30 damage
5	400	20,000	125	4.5 seconds				70 damage	35 damage
6	750	30,000	125	4 seconds				80 damage	40 damage
7	1,000	40,000	125	4 seconds	900 damage	1500 damage	2500 damage	80 damage	45 damage	+ 2.2x
8	1,250	50,000	125	3.5 seconds				90 damage	50 damage
9	1,500	60,000	125	3.5 seconds				100 damage	55 damage
10	2,000	75,000	100	3 seconds				120 damage	60 damage

*These statistics depend on the plant's position - either close to the left side of the lawn, in the middle, or close to the right side of the lawn.

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Level upgrade  (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Potential Outburst 潜能爆发	When being in offensive form, its attack speed is increased when attacking continuously. In defensive form, it will explode after its defeat, doing additional damage to zombies.
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Red Stinger gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Doubled Potential 双倍潜能	Attack speed gained from Potential Outburst is doubled and the explosion will do more damage.
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Red Stinger gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Red Stinger may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Red Stinger gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Audio

Sound	Description
	Red Stinger Plant Food

Strategies

The game put a lot of emphasis on Red Stinger's versatility; depending on the location, he can work as a more powerful Repeater, a Pea-nut with greater offense but worse defense, or an improvised defensive plant. However, in most situations, this is more of a hindrance than a help because this means that Red Stinger will suffer from diminishing offensive potential return, as additional Red Stingers planted from the fourth column will deal less damage than those planted on the first three columns.

Red Stinger's most useful form by far is the fully offensive form, where he effectively acts as a more powerful Repeater with more damage or Fire Peashooter with a lower cost. This makes him a very economical option with a great damage/cost ratio, allowing for a fairly powerful setup near the beginning of a level. When in this form, Red Stinger combines a reasonably fast rate of fire with fairly high damage, allowing him to take out large groups of weaker zombies as well as some stronger zombies such as Buckethead Zombies. This can be very effective against Weasel Hoarders and the Chicken Wranglers because he deals enough damage to kill the Weasel Hoarder/Chicken Wranglers and also has a fast enough rate of fire to kill the Ice Weasels and the Chickens released. However, make sure he is Level 2 or above before using him against the weasels or he will not be able to kill them in one shot, meaning they will quickly overwhelm your plants. Also, you should not rely on him as the main offensive plant as he can easily become overwhelmed by Hunter Zombies and Troglobites.

Red Stinger cannot take out very strong zombies such as Gargantuars very easily, so he needs to be used with harder hitting plants like Citron or Winter Melon or defensive plants when facing these. Don't rely on his Plant Food ability to take out Gargantuars because it deals relatively little damage compared to other plants and also only hits one lane.

The main drawback of this strategy is that for the maximum amount of damage, Red Stingers must be planted in column 1-3, meaning that sun-producers have to be planted further forward, which can make them vulnerable early on in a level. For this reason, he works well in conjunction with plants which produce a large quantity of suns, such as Primal Sunflower , Sun-shroom or Twin Sunflower because generally only one column of these is needed per level, which makes them slightly less vulnerable if they are planted towards the front of the lawn and still allows for two columns of full-power Red Stingers if they are planted in the back.

When planted in columns 4-6, Red Stinger acts like a Pea-nut with less health, though this is generally not recommended, since his defense as well as his damage is much lower than Pea-nut's for the same price. However, since Pea-nut is a premium plant, some players may not have him; therefore, Red Stinger could be used as an alternative. In Lost City, he can be helpful in combating Lost Pilot Zombies, as his elevated health helps him survive the ambush much better than other offensive plants.

Red Stinger's column 7-9 form should generally not be used except in desperate situations because even in his fully defensive form he has fairly low health, less than half of that of a Wall-nut for triple the price . In addition, in situations where the player desperately needs a defensive plant the zombies will generally be close to the house, where Red Stinger's defensive form cannot be used.

Red Stinger should not be as the only offensive plant in levels with Excavator Zombie, and plants that can bypass his shovel such as A.K.E.E. and Laser Bean should be used in tandem with him. If Excavators get too close to your plants, his Plant Food effect can take them out quite easily, and will also slow him down, which may prevent him from digging up a plant if he is just about to. However, this will only affect the zombies in one lane. Also, do not use him with Jester Zombies, as they will reflect the petals and deal damage to your plants.

Balance changes

Version 5.7.1

• ▼ Damage in columns 4-6 reduced from 30 to 15.

Related achievements

	Unwelcome Mat Have 10 Red Stingers in the two columns closest to your house.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Red Stinger.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Red Stinger
Simplified Chinese	红针花	lit. "Red Stinger Flower"
French	Poison rouge	lit. "Red poison"
German	Roter Stachler
Italian	Pungirossa
Brazilian Portuguese	Ferrão Escarlate	from ferrão and escarlate
Spanish	Aguijón rojo

Trivia

General

• Although he is a defensive plant when placed on the right side of the lawn, he cannot be healed with Wall-nut First Aid.
• If his Plant Food effect is used near the end of a Piñata Party, his laser beam will still be visible while whacking piñatas.
• In his Almanac entry, his toughness still says Elevated, despite the 6.7 update changing the rating of toughness to numbers.
  • This is most likely because of his ability to be more defensive or offensive depending on where he is placed.
  • There is no detailed data of his toughness in the game's plant leveling chart either.
• When fed Plant Food in his defensive/part-defensive form, he will switch to his offensive form to use his Plant Food Power, then switch back when he's done.
• If Red Stinger is moved while he is being powered-up in the Beghouled levels, he will not shoot a laser, instead, he will just stay in place.
• His one of costumes is a reference to Robin Hood.
• When boosted by a Appease-mint, Red Stinger will change to the starting appearance, but cannot actually gain any additional health.

Specific to the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2 (China only)

• Zombies defeated by him used to play their zapped animation. This has been fixed.
• Both his offensive and defensive forms are seen in his level upgrade icons.
  • If one looks closely at his second upgrade icon, one can see that the defensive Red Stinger is wearing his military hat costume, as one can see the string that is attached to the hat.
    • However, in the game, he wears his other costume.
• The seed packet is different.
  • His entire body is visible in the Chinese version's seed packet, while his head is only visible in the international version's.

See also

• Unwelcome Mat
• Pea-nut

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