Sun Bean

For other uses of beans, see bean.

For the version in Plants vs. Zombies: Original Edition, see Sun Bean (PvZ: OE).

Sun Bean is the fourth plant obtained in Dark Ages in Plants vs. Zombies 2. After a zombie eats a Sun Bean, the amount of sun the zombie can drop increases by 0.2 for every damage the zombie receives. However, the sun is only dropped in multiplies of 5, or small sun, while the amount of sun remaining will be counted for the next time the zombie is damaged. A zombie which has eaten the bean will glow light yellow and white to indicate that he is affected, releasing more sun as more damage is inflicted. This effect can be applied multiple times to the same Zombie if it eats multiple Sun Beans.

For example, if an affected zombie receives 40 damage, the zombie is able to drop 8 sun, but only one small sun worth 5 sun is dropped, while the other 3 remains in the zombie. If the same zombie receives another 40 damage, the zombie is able to drop 8 more sun, along with the 3 sun remaining in the zombie, which means the zombie can now drop a total amount of 11 sun, but only two more small sun worth 10 sun is dropped.

Origins

This plant's name is a portmanteau of "sun beam," a small light emitted by the sun and "bean," the type of plant this plant is based on.

His green crown costume is a reference to the Statue of Liberty, a famous statue that is found in New York City's harbor.

Almanac entry

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

Sun Bean
	SUN COST 50 RECHARGE 20 SUN PRODUCTION Variable Usage Single, On Contact Enlighten-mint Plant Food: Increases the amount of sun produces [sic] with [sic] eaten. Sun Beans infect zombies with sun. As a zombie takes damage they generate sun. As the eldest of the bean brothers, Sun Bean often finds his siblings exasperating. Chili Bean is a little crude, Laser Bean is too far out, and Spring Bean is just plain lazy. Still, he loves them just the same. That's how it is with family.

Chinese version  (China only)

阳光豆用阳光来影响僵尸。当一个僵尸吃掉它后受到伤害时就会产生阳光。 植物特征：黄色植物、无尽阳光 作为豆子兄弟里的老大哥，阳光豆总觉得他的弟弟妹妹们不靠谱。巴豆总是很粗俗，激光豆太前卫，弹簧豆就是个懒虫。尽管如此，他依然深爱着他的家人们。 In English: Sun Bean uses sun to affect zombies. When a zombie takes damage after eating it, they generate sun. Plant feature: yellow plant, infinite sun As the big brother among the bean brothers, Sun Bean often finds his younger siblings unreliable. Chili Bean is always crude, Laser Bean is too far out, and Spring Bean is just plain lazy. Still, he loves his family.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Plant Food ability (animated)

Plant Food effect on a zombie (animated)

When given Plant Food, Sun Bean turns bright yellow in color. When eaten, the zombie which consumed the Sun Bean will burn up and give the player 0.75 sun for each damage worth of health the zombie had left. The higher the health of the zombie, the greater the amount of sun will be given to the player when it consumes the Sun Bean. Like Hypno-shroom, using a Plant Food doesn't activate the bean, only amplifying its power.

Enlighten-mint effect

When boosted by Enlighten-mint, Sun Bean will convert an additional 100% of damage done to zombies into sun, the maximum amount of sun a zombie can produce is increased by 400, and the maximum amount of sun it can produce from its plant food is by 700.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Sluggish)	Starting Recharge	Toughness	Sun Production* (Variable)	Special (Maximum Sun Production)
								Normal**	Plant Food***
1	0	0	50	20 seconds	15 seconds	50 damage	0.2	300	600
2	10	1,000	50	19 seconds	14 seconds		0.2	325	600
3	75	5,000	50	19 seconds	14 seconds		0.4	325	600
4	200	10,000	50	18 seconds	13 seconds		0.4	350	600
5	400	20,000	25	18 seconds	13 seconds		0.6	350	600
6	750	30,000	25	17 seconds	12 seconds		0.6	375	600
7	1,000	40,000	25	17 seconds	12 seconds		0.8	375	650
8	1,250	50,000	25	16 seconds	11 seconds		0.8	375	650
9	1,500	60,000	25	16 seconds	11 seconds		0.8	400	650
10	2,000	75,000	25	15 seconds	10 seconds		1	400	700

*Sun dropped per zombie for each damage the zombie receives. (Note that the sun will not be dropped until it reaches a multiply of 5)
**Maximum amount of sun a zombie can drop.
***Maximum amount of sun a zombie can drop when the Sun Bean is given Plant Food.

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Costumed (China only)

Sun cost reduction 25.

Strategies

General

It is important to note that multiple Sun Beans can be fed to one zombie, stacking the effect, and that Magnet Shroom, Imp Pear, along with the plants that inflict Poison, will produce the same amount of sun as if the Zombie was killed normally.

Sun Beans are best used against zombies with high amounts of health, allowing a large amount of sun to be generated before the zombie dies. A non-upgraded Sun Bean is not recommended to be used with a normal zombie, Imps, or zombies with toughness lower than 10 normal damage shots (like Zombie Chickens or Ice Weasels), because the normal zombie will give back only 50 sun, while the Imp will give 25 sun, and certain weaker zombies can provide less, thus wasting the Sun Bean totally. Using multiple columns of plants with less damage per hit allows the Sun Bean to be able to make large amounts of sun with each use because sun falls out of the zombie with each individual hit. Ideal plants to combine with Sun Bean include the Potato Mine, Lightning Reed, Spikeweed, Peashooter and other peashooting plants, Fume-shroom, Magnifying Grass, Puff-shroom and Celery Stalker.

Zombies with a high amount of hitpoints are the most valuable zombies to use Sun Bean on. As a result, Buckethead Zombie, Pharaoh Zombie, Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Knight Zombie, Blockhead Zombie or Jurassic Fossilhead, with their high amounts of health, make smart targets for the Sun Bean. However, a Gargantuar would not be a good use for the sun bean because it will simply destroy him. The amassed sun can be combined with existing sun production to afford more expensive plants, or power Magnifying Grass uses. Knight Zombies are the best zombies to be used with Sun Bean in Dark Ages. Using him on Poncho Zombies may not be beneficial, as the poncho must be removed in order to determine how worthwhile using the Sun Bean on it will be, and if it does have its metal grate, using the Sun Bean on a Cowboy Buckethead or even a Zombie Bull would be possible alternatives.

Sun Bean is an excellent choice in levels with the objective "Produce at least X sun." You just have to feed zombies with Sun Beans repeatedly. You may not get any sun profit from this, but because sun dropped by zombies who ate Sun Beans also count as produced sun, so the objective should be completed easily.

New level expansions have zombies such as Brickhead Zombie that are very powerful in health, having the same amount as a Disco-tron 3000. Using Sun Bean on these types of zombies are recommended.

Endless Zones

Hard, but not impossible

One good tactic in Endless Zones is to boost Sun Beans, especially starting from Level 70 because the tendency to spawn a high health zombie, such as Pharaoh Zombie or Knight Zombie, will increase by 60%. This will help you expand an army of your Winter Melons more quickly than consuming all of your Plant Food that you have obtained from previous levels.

This strategy will help you in higher levels of Endless Zones, especially at triple-digit levels onward. The picture in the right shows one way to increase your sun production, which is usable in all Endless Zones. Look for a zombie with high amount of health like a Buckethead Zombie and place the Sun Bean four squares away from the zombie. If you do not feel satisfied, freeze the zombie with Iceberg Lettuce and plant another Sun Bean adjacent to the zombie. Once it consumes two Sun Beans, it will give you fifteen sun for every damage dealt, twenty if you manage to plant a third Sun Bean either by forcing it to go to the leftmost column of the lawn or stalling it with plants like Wall-nut and Tall-nut, then digging it. Finally, kill the zombie with either a Chili Bean or a Potato Mine. Be careful using this strategy.

Another tactic, if you are stuck in a certain situation where zombies are already close in to your defenses. For example, a group of Buckethead Zombies and Zombies are already about to eat your defenses, you can also use Sun Bean there as an alternative means of boosting your defense parameters instead of consuming excess amount of Plant Foods or buying one. With it, you can slowly turn the tides in to your favor, which saves you money. However, this tactic most of the times will not work on cases where zombies like Wizard Zombie, Imp Cannon, Chicken Wrangler Zombie, and many more, especially in cases where Wizard Zombies are present in the level.

Sun Bean is also useful against Ra Zombies since they will be distracted while picking up sun, making even low damaging plants like Lightning Reed useful.

Arena

Sun Bean may find himself useful in Arena, since most non-critter zombies there will generally have enough toughness to make feeding Sun Bean a worthwhile investment. In addition, since he is meant to be eaten to exert his power, he will not incur any score-multiplier penalties when destroyed, unlike most other sun-producing plants like Primal Sunflower and Moonflower. Therefore, he can be a good non-premium option for Arena stages that feature low starting sun/sun drops and aggressive, fast-advancing, or ambush-heavy hordes.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Sun Bean.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Sun Bean
Simplified Chinese	阳光豆
French	Fayot soleil
German	Sonnenbohne
Italian	Fagiolo solare
Brazilian Portuguese	Feijão Solar	From feijão and solar
Spanish	Frijol solar

Trivia

• He and Magnet-shroom are the only non-offensive plants that kill zombies during their Plant Food effect.
  • Coincidentally, both are obtained in Dark Ages.
• For him to be a worthwhile investment and therefore give extra sun, the zombie that must be targeted for sun boost must have a minimum of 250 damage (or 70 if boosted).
• He is the first Enlighten-mint plant that does not directly produce sun.
  • He, Gold Bloom, and Solar Tomato are the only single-use plants that produce sun.
  • Unlike Gold Bloom and Solar Tomato, Sun Bean isn't completely used up upon planting.
  • He is unique for producing sun based on damage dealt against the enemy who ate him. In addition, he will only disappear after been eaten, but the other two will instantly produce sun when planted and vanish.
• According to his Almanac entry, Beans are a family, and he is the oldest.
• In the international version, he is the only Dark Ages plant that is not a mushroom.
  • He is also the only new plant in Dark Ages and the only plant in Dark Ages to not have a hyphen in his name (but only in the international version).
• He and Hypno-shroom are the only plants whose effect and Plant Food effect takes place after they have been eaten.
  • If a zombie eats a Sun Bean and then a Hypno-shroom, then the zombie will only give sun when it comes across another zombie, or exits the lawn, where it will then quickly give whatever sun it can generate.
• Cowboy Zombie gives 50 sun unlike all other Basic Zombie variants. This is likely due to the fact that the cowboy hat is considered armor.
• If Magnet-shroom steals an object from a Sun Bean-affected zombie, it will generate sun. Technically, Magnet-shroom does damage zombies when he steals their objects. However, he cannot degrade the zombie on the other side, he just reduces his health into a regular Zombie with just a health of 190.
• If one feeds the same zombie a Sun Bean multiple times, his effect will stack up, multiplying the amount of sun for every Sun Bean fed.
• He is one of five plants that glow on their seed packet, with the others being Sun-shroom, Hot Potato, Lightning Reed, and Explode-O-Nut.
• He shares his idle animation with Magic-shroom and the aquamarine Bowling Bulb.
• He was mentioned in Potato Mine's Almanac entry in the pre-2021 version of Plants vs. Zombies 3, despite not appearing in the game.

See also

• Sun

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