The Root of All Evil

The Root of All Evil (short form "The Root") is the second boss in The Sanctuary, the fifth corrupted boss and the penultimate boss of Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World, appearing on Level 8B.
Like all other bosses, The Root has an attack that can destroy all plants and zombies in the lanes that they occupy. For this boss, the attack involves charging a beam of corrupted energy before it is fired from their eyes and released down the two lanes the boss occupies.
When The Root of All Evil spawns zombies using a portal, they are also able to use the portal's collapse when it closes to explode and release a blast of corrupted energy into the air, which disturbs nearby corrupted seed pods in the level and causes about 5 - 8 of The Wilted to spawn at random locations on the lawn, making this move spawn both zombies and The Wilted in succession.
The Root is able to spawn 3 - 4 Devil's Fingers at random tiles on the lawn which contain plants. These Devil's Fingers will take a bit of time to grow first before they drag the plant located on the tile down into the ground before growing a new random Wilted plant in their place. There is a way to prevent this, that being the same way Octo-Pet is repelled, by using the anchors near your tent to drop them onto the Devil's Fingers and ward them off.
The Root can also spawn extra Fairy Rings on their own, spawning 3 clusters at a time at random locations, each cluster being of random sizes (the area of each cluster ranging from 2 to 4 tiles).
Another special attack that The Root can use is one which sets up towers that hold corrupted orbs called Nexuses. This special attack is shared between all bosses in The Sanctuary, and each time the attack is performed, two towers will be set up in random free tiles on the lawn. Nexuses give damage resistance to The Root themselves as well as any allies (i.e. zombies and The Wilted) in a 3×3 area. Each Nexus has 1000 DPS worth of health, gives 40% unstackable damage resistance to allies and gives the boss 20% stackable damage resistance.
Like other corrupted bosses, The Root can bend reality and create rifts similarly to how this occurs during levels in level path E's (more about level paths here). See more about the possible reality rifts The Root can create in the Reality rifts section of this page. Due to the high difficulty of the fight against this boss, the conveyor belt in the boss level will supply seed packets much faster than usual.
==Origins==
The Root of All Evil's name is based on the common phrase "the root of all evil", which is used in discussing the subject of where all evil intention sprouts from. The phrase is commonly used with money ("money is the root of all evil"), albeit this has nothing to do with The Root of All Evil themselves. Their name is meant to be a portmanteau of this phrase and the word "root", which refers to the organ of vascular plants that both help to anchor the plant into the ground and absorb water and nutrients from the soil.
Devil's Fingers, one of The Root's attacks, are based on the fungus of the same common name (scientific name Clathrus archeri), whose appearance displays a structure of what seems to be protruding "fingers". The name "Devil" in Devil's Fingers relates to the boss themselves in terms of evil.
The Wilted plant, Fairy Rings, is based on the natural phenomenon where some mushrooms may naturally grow in circles. These circular formations are described in a lot of folklore, with some describing Fairy Rings being dangerous and sometimes even associated with the Devil, which relates to the boss as well. It should be noted that Fairy Rings, however, do also sometimes have positive connotations as well in other folklore.
==Almanac entry==
The Root of All Evil
Toughness: Undying
Speed: Hungry
The undying leader of the Wilted, willing to use all kinds of tactics to achieve eradication of all life and unlife on Earth.
Special: Spawns Devil’s Fingers that can grab plants from the bottom and drag them down, replacing them with Wilted plants
Special: Grows Fairy Rings in random areas of random sizes
Special: Can set up Nexuses in random tiles that give damage resistance to themselves and allies in a 3×3 area
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==Reality rifts==
The Root of All Evil can use their corrupted energy to create reality rifts. These rifts, unlike those from levels in level path E, are temporary, and each will only take place during certain phases of the boss fight (see the Phases section of this page for this). The following are the possible rifts The Root of All Evil can create:
*Fairy Ring rift - Fairy Rings may occasionally jumble up the positions of plants, zombies and Wilted Plants within them.
*Nexus rift - Also used by the Zombot Amalgamatronic Abomination. Nexuses may become unstable from overloading corruption and occasionally shoot stray bolts that cause random explosions on the lawn (destroying all plants and zombies on the struck tile and stunning others in a 3×3 area.
*Gimmick rift - Also used by the Zombot Amalgamatronic Abomination. The gimmicks currently in the level may drastically change to a new set of gimmicks.
*Seed packet rift - Also used by the Zombot Magma Drake. Every time you use a seed packet from the conveyor belt, all other seed packets present in the conveyor belt changes to a random plant (but only to plants that are available for the level).
==Phases==
The Root of All Evil is able to perform one of the following actions:
*They can create a portal using corrupted energy to summon corrupted zombies. The types of zombies that come out from the portal depend on the phase. When the portal closes, it will also explode to release a corrupted energy blast into the air which disturbs nearby corrupted seed pods and spawns numerous Wilted plants.
*They can spawn Devil’s Fingers that can grab plants from the bottom and drag them down, replacing them with Wilted plants.
*They can grow Fairy Rings in random areas of random sizes spanning 2-4 tiles.
*They can set up a Nexuses in random tiles, which are root towers that hold corrupted orbs that give damage resistance to The Root themselves and nearby allies (i.e. zombies and The Wilted) in a 3×3 area.
*The Root can slowly charge a beam of corrupted energy before they release it down the two lanes they occupy, annihilating all plants and zombies present in those lanes.
**Most Plant Food effects can stop The Root while they are charging the energy beam.
*The Root can use their corrupted energy to create reality rifts that last for the duration of one or more phases (refer to the table and the Reality rifts section of this page to know the details).
Phase	Health 	Summoned zombies	Attacks	Reality rifts
1 	16000DPS	 	Charges an energy beam and fires it out of their eyes down the lanes they occupy, destroying all plants and zombies in those lanes.
Spawns Devil's Fingers to drag plants down and replace them with The Wilted.
Sets up Nexuses in random tiles to give damage resistance to themselves and nearby allies.	Fairy Ring and gimmick rift
2 	20000DPS	 	Charges an energy beam and fires it out of their eyes down the lanes they occupy, destroying all plants and zombies in those lanes.
Grows Fairy Rings in random areas of random sizes.
Sets up Nexuses in random tiles to give damage resistance to themselves and nearby allies.	Nexus and seed packet rift
3 	24000DPS	* 	Charges an energy beam and fires it out of their eyes down the lanes they occupy, destroying all plants and zombies in those lanes.
Spawns Devil's Fingers to drag plants down and replace them with The Wilted.
Grows Fairy Rings in random areas of random sizes.
Sets up Nexuses in random tiles to give damage resistance to themselves and nearby allies.	Fairy Ring, Nexus and gimmick rift
* - Revenant Zombie appears in their corrupted form in this phase.
==Strategies==
Just like most bosses in PvZ:LW, The Root of All Evil has the ability to take out two whole lanes of plants. As The Root will take time to do this by charging their energy beam, during this duration, use a plant's Plant Food power to damage The Root to prevent them from releasing their energy beam. Due to Plant Food being the only way to stop this attack, it is recommended to save up Plant Food for situations like these, but, however, even if you don’t happen to have Plant Food, the damage can still be compensated for, since the zombies in the same lanes will also get taken out. Plus, with a conveyor belt supplying seeds, you can repair the damage done quickly.
The Root's Devil's Fingers can deal quite a number to your defenses if you are not attentive and react fast enough. There's not much strategy required to ward off the Devil's Fingers other than making sure that you keep an eye out for them and drop the anchors on them as soon as possible before they get the chance to strike. If the Devil's Fingers do manage to drag down some of your plants and spawn more of The Wilted, however, then try to focus on getting rid of The Wilted that spawn within your defenses and patching up any significant damage done as quickly as possible. Especially when any of The Wilted that spawns is something like Wilted Gloom-shroom, they can devastatingly take out much of your plants within your defense, so getting rid of them as soon as possible is crucial.
The Root's ability to grow Fairy Rings can be disruptive for your plants if they grow within your defenses and make it somewhat harder for you to deal with The Wilted if they grow around the areas where they reside. Plus, the Fairy Ring rift during the first and third phase makes things even more disruptive, randomly changing the positions of all the plants and zombies within them. Plants, zombies and The Wilted can change positions not just within the same cluster, but between different clusters too, making it dangerous if some of the zombies and The Wilted get transported to a Fairy Ring cluster within your defense. Luckily, one easy way to counter this to ensure you have shadow plants that emit shadow aura in order to kill off the Fairy Rings (e.g. Moonflower's aura and [[Skullcap]'s powered projectiles) and reduce their numbers as much as they can to prevent them from hindering your plants' performance and boosting The Wilted's, and as well as negating the risk of the reality rift disrupting and jumbling up everything.
When The Root starts setting up Nexuses, it's recommended you take them out as quick as possible, considering how potent the support it gives to The Root, zombies and The Wilted is with the significant damage resistance boost, making it much harder for you to take out enemies and deal damage to The Root. Plus, during the second and third phase of the boss fight, the Nexus rift can cause the Nexuses to start shooting stray bolts that destroy anything it hits while also stunning everything adjacent to the tile it hit, which can be detrimental if the bolt so happens to shoot into your defenses. Since Nexuses don't have a particular counter, you'll have to use brute force in order to get rid of them. Thankfully, Nexuses themselves don't gain damage resistance and their health is somewhat less than that of a Buckethead, so as long as the Nexuses aren't too crowded with enemies, you can utilize your plants' high firepower to take them out with ease. If the Nexuses do turn out to be hard to target due to its position or the amount of enemies around it, and start causing your defenses to get overwhelmed, you can use any spare instant-kill plants or Plant Food you may have if you deem it necessary.
The gimmick rift during the first and third phases can force you to deal with different sets of gimmicks in the level, making it necessary for you to adapt to all the possible gimmicks that may appear. It's somewhat tricky to summarize the strategies you can use to deal with this reality rift, so you'll need to be prepared to be flexible to adapt during this boss battle, adapting your defense and strategy in order to deal with the gimmicks that may be presented to you during the level. If you are particularly struggling with this reality rift, you can try to identify which certain gimmicks are causing you to struggle, then try to change up your defense in order to remove the weaknesses that are making you struggling against those gimmicks.
You especially need to be cautious about conserving the number of plants you have on the lawn in phase two, where the seed packet rift is also effective at this stage. With this rift in effect, the plants you save up in the conveyor belt can change to other plants that you might not need when you plant the seeds one by one, so not only do you need to conserve as many plants as you can, but you also need to make sure that what you plant while this rift is in effect is necessary.
==Gallery==
The Root of All Evil (final version).png|The Root of All Evil (HD)
The Root of All Evil (original version by Chicken).png|Original rendition by Chicken
First degrade (The Root of All Evil).png|First degrade
Second degrade (The Root of All Evil).png|Second degrade
Growing Devil's Fingers (The Root of All Evil).png|The Root of All Evil growing Devil's Fingers to drag down plants
Devil's Fingers (The Root of All Evil).png|The Devil's Fingers that The Root of All Evil grows
Summoning Fairy Rings (The Root of All Evil).png|The Root of All Evil summoning Fairy Rings
Setting up Nexuses (The Root of All Evil).png|The Root of All Evil setting up Nexuses to boost themselves and allies
Nexus (The Root of All Evil).png|The Nexus that The Root of All Evil sets up
About to shoot energy beam out of eyes (The Root of All Evil).png|The Root of All Evil about to shoot an energy beam out of their eyes to defeat plants (and zombies)
Opening a portal to spawn zombies (The Root of All Evil).png|The Root of All Evil opening a portal to spawn zombies
Activating a reality rift (The Root of All Evil).png|The Root of All Evil activating a reality rift
==Art credits==
*Credits to Chicken for the original rendition art.
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