Catapult Zombie (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

"Now I'm my own plant, with my own ambitions, dreams and gym club memberships!"

This article is about content from the international version but was heavily altered in the Chinese version.

Catapult Zombie is a zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2 added in the 10.7 update. He functions identically to how he did in the original Plants vs. Zombies, lobbing basketballs down its lane to target the plant closest to the back of the lawn, and driving down its lane when it runs out of basketballs or defeats all of the plants in its lane.

In the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2, he is exclusive to Memory Lane and sports a design that more closely resembles his original appearance.

Overview

Catapult Zombie absorbs 750 damage and its appearance does not change at all before dying at 750 damage. It can instantly kill plants on the collision, but the following plants cannot be crushed: all instant-use plants, Sundew Tangler, Nightcap, Ghost Pepper without vine plants or Pumpkin on top of her, Lily Pad without plants on top of it, and some plants during their Plant Food effect.

Catapult Zombie will be broken if meeting with Spikeweed, Spikerock, Bramble Bush, Cactus, or Iceweed (Spikeweed, Cactus, Bramble Bush, and non-Plant-Food-fed Iceweed will be removed in this case, while others will lose one spike). It is immune to the knockback and shrinking effects from some plants. Catapult Zombie deals no damage to hypnotized zombies and other plant-side zombies while they can still attack Catapult Zombie. When Catapult Zombie is hypnotized by Caulipower or Enchant-mint, it deals 200 damage per second to other zombies.

Its basketballs do 90 damage per hit (75 damage in the Chinese version).

Almanac entry

Catapult Zombie
	TOUGHNESS Machined SPEED Basic Catapult Zombie can lob basketballs over wall type plants with deadly accuracy, making it a serious threat. Special: Lobs projectiles at the last plant in the lane. Special: Crushes plants while driving down the lawn. Even with two ZCorp factories producing basketballs around the clock, there never seems to be enough.

Strategies

Catapult Zombie is instantly killed by Spikeweed, Spikerock, Cactus, Iceweed, and Bramble Bush. Spear-mint also works due to summoning Spikerocks. If those counters are unavailable, piercing plants such as Fume-shroom and Laser Bean work to take down this zombie. If all else fails, a defensive or cheap plant, such as most sun producers or Puff-Shroom, in the first column should be enough to hold out.

Catapult Zombie's basketballs deal enough damage to kill most level 1 plants that aren't walls in 4 hits. Vine plants (and Pumpkin) are damaged before the plant inside.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Catapult Zombie.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Catapult Zombie
Simplified Chinese	篮球车僵尸 投篮车僵尸	Basketball Car Zombie Shooting Cart Zombie
French	Zombie-catapulte
German	Katapult-Zombie
Italian	Zombi catapulta
Brazilian Portuguese	Zumbi Catapulta
Spanish	Zombi catapulta

Trivia

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

• Unlike his original counterpart, Catapult Zombie in the International version of Plants vs. Zombies 2 apppears different in terms of appearance.
  • Catapult Zombie's body is recycled from Cardio Zombie, albeit with different hat and added a red whistle on his neck.
  • Instead of a basketball post, it uses a basket to hold and launch the basketballs.
  • To launch a basketball, Catapult Zombie presses the red button to control the basket, instead of winding it up.
  • The front wheel is now positioned at an 1/8-degree angle.
• Catapult Zombie also seems different in terms of functionality and mechanism compared to his original counterpart.
  • If Catapult Zombie is already in the driving mode and it still has basketball(s) left, even if new plants appear in its lane, it will not stop to throw the residual basketball(s).
  • Catapult Zombie has a limited ammo of 7 basketballs instead of 20 basketballs.
  • Catapult Zombie's projectiles deal 90 damage each instead of 75 damage.
  • Catapult Zombie can absorb a little more damage in this game.
  • Catapult Zombie's projectiles will damage a Pumpkin first, not the plants inside the Pumpkin.
• Unlike most machines which just collapse or explode immediately, Catapult Zombie presses the red button one more time before it disintegrates.
• Caulipower's Plant Food effect can make the Catapult Zombie lob basketballs from outside the lawn.
• While Bramble Bush does have the ability to instantly kill the Catapult Zombie, sometimes it will trap the zombie and damage it over time, instead of destroying it.

Specific to the Chinese version (China only)

Comparison between the international version (left) and Chinese version (right)

• Catapult Zombie, along with Pumpkin (specifically his Plant Food armor), are the only characters to have different designs between the international and Chinese versions. In Catapult Zombie's case, he was redesigned to more closely resemble his original appearance.
  • Talkweb posted an official poll allowing fans to vote for his design with the option to choose his international design and original design. Ultimately the original design won the poll by 88%.
    • Catapult Zombie's appearance between versions is unusual, unlike Dandelion, whose redesigned counterpart got added later to international version, Catapult Zombie was added to international version first before getting redesigned to Chinese version later.
  • Despite their differences, both share nearly identical death animations.
• As seen in the reveal image, Catapult Zombie's basketball originally had a different appearance before getting changed to an appearance akin to the international version.
  • His forehead was also initially that of a basic zombie's forehead, but was changed to that of a Digger Zombie's forehead to look closer to his body type in the original Plants vs. Zombies.
  • This early design can be seen on the Almanac icon.

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