Rodeo Legend Zombie

Rodeo Legend Zombie
Rodeo Legend Zombie smashes a plant and launches his zombie rider past most of your defenses.
Almanac statistics
Toughness	Hardened
Speed	Hungry
In-game statistics
In-game speed	Flighty (when charging), then Stiff (when walking)
Health	1400
Damage	2000
Eat DPS	150
Weakness	(disables) (can prevent it from charging further) (with Plant Food; stops charge attack and blocks flying Zombie Bull Rider) (cannot be destroyed) (knocks them back) (when hiding) (triggers their attacks) (can stop several charge attacks and blocks the flying Zombie Bull Rider) (can stop several charge attacks, but cannot block Zombie Bull Rider) (spawned minions stop charges)
First seen	Wild West - Day 32
Code name	west_bull_veteran
"Legend" perhaps overstates Rodeo Legend Zombie's status in the rodeo world. Don't tell him that, though, unless you're desperate to hear an hour-long tirade about calf-roping.

Rodeo Legend Zombie is a zombie that appears in the Wild West expansion in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It is the upgraded version of Zombie Bull, which is tougher, deals very high damage to the first plant it meets, attacking every 2/3 seconds and can charge repeatedly.

Almanac entry

Rodeo Legend Zombie
	TOUGHNESS Hardened SPEED Hungry Rodeo Legend Zombie smashes a plant and launches his zombie rider past most of your defenses. "Legend" perhaps overstates Rodeo Legend Zombie's status in the rodeo world. Don't tell him that, though, unless you're desperate to hear an hour-long tirade about calf-roping.

Encounters

Wild West: Days 32, 33, 34 and 35

Modern Day: Day 32

Arena: Blastberry Vine & Friends VS Zomboss

Overview

Rodeo Legend Zombie absorbs 1400 damage, and its appearance changes upon absorbing 460 and 940 before dying at 1400 damage. Its smashing attacks deal 2000 damage. It also eats plants at a x1.5 faster rate than an average Basic Zombie.

Strategies

This is a very dangerous zombie, especially with its extra ability and increased speed, as most defensive plants will be severely damaged or even destroyed. Kill it quickly, as he can smash an unlimited amount of plants in its lane. Groups of Rodeo Legend Zombies may cause you to lose the game easily without the right defenses and lead to you spending Plant Food or Power Ups to get rid of them. Primal Wall-nut is a good choice because of his fast recharge.

It is recommended to use Kernel-pult, Iceberg Lettuce, Stunion, or E.M.Peach to stun the Rodeo Legend Zombie before he launches his Zombie Bull Rider as it can damage a plant during this attempt as well. Plants such as Pea Pod (with 5 heads), Torchwood (with peashooting plants), Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Grapeshot, Electric Peashooter, and Bowling Bulbs can assist in dealing high damage to this zombie.

Sacrificial plants such as Puff-shroom or Sun-shroom can be good as a primary staller for this zombie. However, when they come in groups, such as in Wild West - Day 33, they may be overwhelmed, since they have to recharge. Spore-shrooms are also effective when this zombie appears with some other zombies as they will create a new Spore-shroom which will stall it, even when charging towards your plants.

Infi-nut's Plant Food effect can be used to block this zombie. The bull is stopped undead by Infi-nut in general- It'll just charge it over and over- Regardless of it being active or not. Be warned however: Gargantuars can kill the projector.

Spring Bean, Chard Guard, Primal Peashooter, and Holly Barrier are good choices, since they can push back this zombie when he is charging. However, Spring Bean must be awake for this to work. It's a good idea to pair knock-back plants with a Blover, as it will blow Rodeo Legend Zombie away. Rodeo Legend Zombie will not attack Ghost Pepper or any underground plants such as Spikeweed, Spikerock, Cactus, and Celery Stalker. Due to this, these plants are a good way to defeat these zombies. Guacodiles, Lava Guava, Explode-O-Nut, or Hot Date are also useful against the zombie as they will trigger the attacks instead of destroying these plants, greatly damaging him.

Tall-nut is highly useful against the zombie because the Tall-nut can not only block the Zombie Bull Rider the same way he can block them when thrown from Zombie Bulls, but it also ignores damage caused by impact of being hit. Using Infi-nut is also a great idea. If he charges at Infi-nut, even if he is still regenerating health, he will still stop his charge attack. Not only that, but he'll back up a tiny bit, and before he arrives at Infi-nut, he will be ready to charge. This means one Infi-nut per row will stop all Rodeo Legend Zombie attacks.

Note: Bonk Choys, Snapdragons, Phat Beets, and Cold Snapdragons are useless (unless fed with Plant Food) as they can only attack from a very short range. While the Rodeo Legend Zombie is charging, avoid placing these plants near him, as they will hardly damage in and will easily get destroyed. Homing Thistles are also useless, as they can easily be distracted by other zombies, especially if Chicken Wrangler Zombies, Prospector Zombies, or Pianist Zombies (with other Cowboy Zombies) appear and therefore, they will have a hard time trying to take this zombie out. Citrons are also ineffective against it unless fed with Plant Food, as they fire very slowly compared to other plants and these zombies are very fast, and the increased damage will not be enough to fend them off. Nightshades without Plant Food are not useful either because they have too low of a range when not powered and regenerate projectiles too slowly when powered. Chomper and Toadstools are also a very bad idea, as they cannot devour the Rodeo Legend Zombies and will only attack them while they can easily destroy your Chompers and Toadstools. In addition, using Plant Food on these plants against this zombie is also useless. Also, avoid using Parsnip against it as, unlike Guacodile, it will destroy it without making it rush.

Hypno-shroom, if timed right, can hypnotize this zombie, as there is a fairly significant amount of downtime between its attacks during which it must eat plants. Enchant-mint and Caulipower can get around this completely. Either way, they allow players to not only remove this zombie as a threat but also further cripple oncoming zombies.

With Wild West Gargantuars

A combination of Rodeo Legend Zombies and Wild West Gargantuars can be very threatening, as they both have high health, move very fast, and have Zombie Bull Riders that can easily cause huge problems if thrown to your backmost defenses. To prevent this, you should keep at least a Blover or Hurrikale at your disposal. All normal instant kill plants except Chili Bean, Primal Potato Mine, or possibly Grapeshot may require at least two strikes to kill the Rodeo Legend Zombie itself. Stalling or delaying them with Primal Peashooters, Apple Mortars, Kernel-pult and other plants with offensive and immobilizing powers may be required. Shrinking Violet is also useful as this prevents them from launching their Zombie Bull Riders and gives Jack O' Lantern, Banana Launcher, and Missile Toe the ability to kill the Rodeo Legend Zombie instantly.

Gallery

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  Almanac entry part 1

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  Almanac entry part 2

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  Almanac entry (10.5.2)

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  Almanac icon

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  Zombie Bull Rider, Zombie Bull, and Rodeo Legend Zombie assets and sprites

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  HD Rodeo Legend Zombie

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  In-game

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  A glowing Rodeo Legend Zomboe

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  Charging without Zombie Bull Rider

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  First degrade

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  Second degrade

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  Defeated Rodeo Legend Zombie

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  Buttered Rodeo Legend Zombie

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  Poisoned Rodeo Legend Zombie with Zombie Bull Rider

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  Poisoned Rodeo Legend Zombie without Zombie Bull Rider

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  A Rodeo Legend Zombie near a Tall-nut

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  Defeated Rodeo Legend Zombie with its rider

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  Hypnotised Rodeo legend about to launch zombie bull rider

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  Almanac texture

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  Rodeo Legend Zombie arriving, being chilled and charging (Animated)

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  HD Rodeo Legend Zombie running

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  HD Rodeo Legend Zombie without Zombie Bull Rider

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Rodeo Legend Zombie
French	Zombie rodéo star
German	Rodeo-Legenden-Zombie
Italian	Zombi leggenda del rodeo
Brazilian Portuguese	Zumbi Peão Lendário
Spanish	Zombi leyenda del rodeo

Trivia

• It and Jurassic Rockpuncher are the only veteran zombies to have a unique ability compared to their downgrades.
• Despite the fact its speed is listed in the Almanac as Hungry, its actual speed when charging is Flighty and its speed when not charging is Stiff.
• Whenever the bull is about to charge at plants, its eyebrows change to a blondish-orange color, due to the animations being re-used from the Zombie Bull.
• It is possible for the bull to throw the imp directly into the player's house, causing the player to lose instantly, even if he was hypnotized.
• In Wild West - Day 35, it is not spawned by Zombot War Wagon. Instead it comes surprisingly from the zombie side, despite not being encountered in the zombie preview.
• Unlike Zombie Bull, it can be eaten by Toadstool. It is unknown if this is an glitch or not.
• Rodeo Legend Zombie (if not counting Wild West expansion levels), Imp Dragon Zombie (excluding Modern Day levels) and Cart-Head Zombie (condition similar to Rodeo Legend Zombie) are the only zombies to appear in one level of a world.
  • Interestingly, this zombie and Cart-Head zombie are the only veteran or upgrade zombies that appear in a non-expansion level, which is Modern Day - Day 32.

See also

• Zombie Bull
• Imp

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