Tumbleweed

Bring BIG SURPRISE!

This item is only obtainable during certain events. However, it can still be used if you have already obtained it. It is currently not available.

Tumbleweed is a premium plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2, that was first introduced in the 8.1.1 update. He rolls down the lane he's planted in, bouncing back any zombie he encounters.

About

Tumbleweed is a seed packet obtainable plant tied to the 15th Arena season, "Tumbleweed's Rumble Season". Tumbleweed is able to be planted anywhere, even on top of already occupied tiles. When planted, he will run down a lane to knock back any zombie (for 1.53125 tiles) he runs into, bouncing off of zombies in-between lane in a similar fashion to Bowling Bulb and Wall-nuts in Wall-nut Bowling.

Tumbleweed also has a slim chance to briefly stun zombies he bumps into, and has an even slimmer chance (depending on the type of zombies) to bounce zombies off the lawn completely.

Toss Chance	Types of Zombies
30%	Imp, Bug Bot Imp, Dodo Rider Zombie, Roman Imp, Basic Zombie, Pirate Captain Zombie,Healer Zombie, Explorer Zombie, Prospector Zombie, Camel Zombie, Turquoise Skull Zombie, Punk Zombie, Glitter Zombie, Surfer Zombie, Tomb Raiser Zombie, Newspaper Zombie, Ra Zombie, Swashbuckler Zombie, Poncho Zombie, Chicken Wrangler Zombie, Weasel Hoarder, Wizard Zombie, Snorkel Zombie, Hunter Zombie, Parasol Zombie, Relic Hunter Zombie, 8 Bit Zombie, MC Zom-B, Breakdancer Zombie, Boombox Zombie, Roman Shield Zombie and Balloon Zombie
15%	All Star Zombie, Imp Porter, Shield Zombie, Barrel Roller Zombie, Troglobite, Arcade Zombie, Octo Zombie, Pharaoh Zombie, Jurassic Bully, Jurassic Rockpuncher, and Zombie Medusa
5%	Mecha Football Zombie, Zombie Bull, Rodeo Legend Zombie, Pianist Zombie, Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Big Brainz zombies
0%	Zombies except for all mentioned above

When planting Tumbleweed, there is also a small chance for multiple Tumbleweeds to be planted at once. If Tumbleweed encounters a Torchwood, he will be set ablaze and deal fire damage to any zombie he bumps into. His appearance also changes as he levels up, appearing in three different phases.

Origins

Tumbleweed, as his name suggests, is based on the tumbleweed diaspore, in which a germinated plant will purposefully deprive itself of nutrients, then detach itself from its root stem and be blown away by the wind, dispersing its seeds as it bounces along the terrain.

His ability of being set ablaze by Torchwood is based on how tumbleweeds in real life are extremely flammable, while his ability to sometimes spawn more than one of him at a time is based on tumbleweed's highly aggressive reproduction rate.

Almanac

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

Tumbleweed
	SUN COST 50 RECHARGE 5.50 DAMAGE 15 Special Multi-shot Special 0.60 RANGE Straight Usage Single, Instant Appease-mint Plant Food: No Plant Food effect. Tumbleweeds roar off down the lane, bouncing off zombies and knocking them back with a chance to stun or even flip them off the lawn. Special: set aflame by Torchwood This zesty little guy can't wait to get at it! Places to do! Things to go! It works because he planned thoroughly ahead of time.

Upgrades

Appease-mint effect

When boosted by Appease-mint, Tumbleweed will gain an additional 105 damage, his bonus tumbleweed chance is increased by 35%, and his knockback chance is increased to 90%.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge	Starting Recharge	Damage	Stun Duration	Special (Knockback)		Special (Multi-shot)*
								Distance	Chance	Amount	Chance
1	0	0	50	5.5 seconds	3 seconds	15 damage	3 seconds	Normal	60%	1	15%
2	50			5 seconds	2.75 seconds	25 damage	3.5 seconds	+6%	65%
3	100			4.5 seconds	2.5 seconds	35 damage	4 seconds	+12%			20%
4	200			4 seconds	2.25 seconds	45 damage	4.5 seconds	+18%	75%
5	300		25	3.5 seconds	2 seconds	55 damage	5 seconds	+24%			25%
6	400			3 seconds	1.75 seconds	65 damage	5.5 seconds	+30%	80%	2
7	500			2.5 seconds	1.5 seconds	75 damage	6 seconds	+36%			30%
8	600			2 seconds	1.25 seconds	85 damage	6.5 seconds	+42%	85%
9	800			1.5 seconds	1 second	95 damage	7 seconds	+48%			35%
10	1,000			1 second	0.75 seconds	105 damage	7.5 seconds	+55%	90%

*Shows the amount and chance of bonus Tumbleweeds respectively.

Mastery upgrade

• Damage Pierce

Strategies

Tumbleweed is an interesting support plant similar to Bowling Bulb in function in that it bounces between zombies, affecting multiple targets. His relatively low sun cost, quick recharge and chance to duplicate once planted make him a valid plant for spamming, and can prove effective at stalling entire crowds. The strength of Tumbleweed can be seen to full effect against large hordes, where it can affect as many zombies as possible.

As Tumbleweeds effects are useful regardless of zombie toughness, it might be useful plant for Penny's Pursuit levels (and especially Extra Hot ones), where the zombies are significantly stronger. The instant kill chance, brief stun and pushback abilities Tumbleweed possesses are all useful here.

Tumbleweed is a great early game stall plant against small groups of zombies, as it can slow them down so the player can set their defenses faster, or knock them off the board completely. Because of this, Tumbleweed excels against Weasel Hoarder and Chicken Wrangler Zombie, as he can easily bounce between all the chickens and weasels as they are released. Tumbleweed also excels in Neon Mixtape Tour as he can bounce between zombies protected by Glitter Zombie and 8-Bit Zombie produced by arcades.

As great as Tumbleweed is against large groups, as terrible as he is against rows. As he bounces as soon as he hits the first zombie in a row, Tumbleweed cannot deal with large advances in a row unless there are zombies above or below them in another row for Tumbleweed to bounce off to. Tumbleweed therefore does not make for a good ‘clutch’ plant to stop zombies just before they reach the players house, as the damage he does is insignificant and he will only hit the zombie once.

The nature of his bouncing can also make him unpredictable when planted in the middle three rows - he can either bounce upwards or downwards, potentially wasting a lot of utility. Whilst Tumbleweed can be planted before a Torchwood to light it on fire, the extra damage it gains is insignificant, so it is not recommended to rely on this as a strategy. However, this can still be considered if Torchwood is used alongside other pea plants, because Tumbleweed can still be planted on tiles occupied by plants, allowing him to be safely placed behind Torchwoods without sacrificing firepower.

Balance changes

Update 10.9.1

• ▲ Tumbleweed now has Mastery.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Tumbleweed.

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Tumbleweed
German	Steppenläufer
Spanish	Rodadora
French	Virevoltant
Italian	Rotolacampo
Brazilian Portuguese	Salsola Rolante

Trivia

• Tumbleweed is the first and only plant in the International version of Plants vs. Zombies 2 who changes appearance when leveled up.
• He is the only non-peashooting plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2 whose attack can be affected by Torchwood.
  • He will deal more damage when passing through Torchwood. However, Torchwood's plant food ability does not increase this damage bonus, unlike pea plants in his family.
• He is one of the two plants that cannot be upgraded to Mastery, yet belongs to a plant family. The other one is Intensive Carrot.
  • As of 10.9.1, Tumbleweed is upgradable to Mastery.
• Tumbleweed presumably requires friction on the ground before he could start rolling, so he could not be planted directly on water tiles in Big Wave Beach. However, because he is technically considered a projectile, once launched he will simply float past water or plankless lanes in Pirate Seas without sinking.

See also

• Bowling Bulb
• Wall-Nut Bowling

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