Pyrotechnician Zombie

Pyrotechnician Zombie is a zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that is introduced in Fire, Unemployed, a special-type event in Penny's Pursuit, you may also encounter her in Arena, Thymed Events, and Piñata Parties. Whenever she sings, she summons vases filled with fireworks at random.
When a zombie is in contact with a vase, it'll explode, launching the zombie farther into your lawn. After the zombie lands in a tile, they'll be stunned for two seconds until they advance and eat your defenses from the inside. The zombie also gains soot following the explosion, which gives extra armor and prevents status effects from being inflicted unless it is removed.
Due to her burning attire, Pyrotechnician Zombie is immune to being frozen or chilled by plants. When it comes to the vase, larger zombies like gargantuars, bullies, or high-health mechs cannot be launched, although they can gain the soot.
==Origins==
Pyrotechnician Zombie is of course based off a pyrotechnician, a person who's good at handling and creating things such as safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts, other fasteners, and most notably: fireworks, if we take that into account, her line of work would be display pyrotechnics, which means she's good at handling such devices intended to be used outside. Her suit's design is similar to the one worn by Uncle Sam, a personification of the United States itself and a mascot for Independence Day also. The aforementioned holiday is about celebrating the declaration of independence, food, and fireworks. She also has some design elements taken from Fireworks Zombie, a three-cost super-rare card in Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes.
Her almanac entry mentions pyrotechnic stars, which is a pellet present in fireworks that generates a specific color.
==Overview==
Pyrotechnician Zombie absorbs 850 damage per shot before being defeated. When she absorbs 225 damage per shot, her hat shows signs of damage, like being bent or having rips in them, before eventually getting knocked off when absorbing 450 damage per shot. Her arm gets detached once she absorbs 675 damage per shot, and when she absorbs 850 damage per shot, she's ultimately rendered defeated.
The fireworks vase that she summons absorbs 450 damage per shot, with it showing signs of deterioration after absorbing 250 damage per shot, before being destroyed after absorbing 450 damage. When it comes to the soot, it absorbs 275 damage per shot, with it not showing signs of damage or deterioration, except for when it gets knocked off after absorbing the latter amount of damage per shot.
==Almanac Entry==
==Encounters==
*Summer Nights (Piñata Parties & Thymed Event)
*Penny's Pursuit - Fire, Unemployed 
*Arena
*Epic Quest - Inzanity!
==Strategies==
When Pyrotechnician Zombie appears on your lawn, you should be extra careful in the lane she's in because of the amount of health she has, her speed, and her abilities. As mentioned before, she can summon vases that launch zombies far away, sabotaging and infiltrating your defenses. Firstly, let's talk about Pyrotechnician Zombie herself, because of her toughness and speed, she can protect zombies that are much slower than her as well as summon her vases in farther areas, it is recommended to use piercing plants like Laser Bean to deal damage to all zombies and environmental modifiers in her lane, you can also utilize Dartichoke as she can prioritize and damage this zombie first, or instant plants like Cherry Bomb or Jalapeno to ensure that both her and her vases are destroyed before it gets too out of control, if you're in the Chinese Version, Acidic Lemon is also a good choice for an attacker as he deals double it's damage despite the zombie not wearing any metallic headwear. If you are aiming to stall her, you could use Stallia, Sap-fling, Bzzz Button, or other slowing plants to slow. You could also place down stunning plants like Kernel-pult to freeze her or other zombies in place without having to solely rely on Winter-mint plants. Defensive plants are also an option because they may be able to prevent her and other zombies from advancing while distracting her from summoning vases, Tall-nuts and Explode-o-Nuts are recommended, as Tall-nut has high health and Explode-o-Nut can instantly ash all of the zombies in the radius of the blast, you may also utilize the Chard Guard/Reinforce-mint and Blover combo if it's timed and done right. Next, let's discuss about the vases, you need to utilize high-damage dealing plants like Citron or instant plants like Cherry Bomb to swiftly destroy them, but what happens if a zombie successfully makes contact with the vases and gets launched deep into your defenses? You can use a timed Blover or Hurrikale to blow them away while they're airborne, or they land, you can use the latter or plants that have the knockback effect to push them back to the right side of your lawn, however, their usage is highly situational as Pyrotechnician Zombie can summon another vase while the zombie is getting pushed back, so it's recommended to use any stalling plant to prevent them from internally destroying your defenses. If hypothetically, you don't have these plants in your seed slots and you're being overwhelmed by the amount of zombies being launched into your plants, Thyme Warp could be useful as it sends back all zombies to the rightmost column, but since it has a major downside wherein zombies that are sent back get healed up, it is recommended to use high-damage dealing or poisoning plants to destroy her and the others, Puffball and Shadow-shroom is a suitable pick for the combo, as the former can poison all zombies in the column, the latter's plant food is also similar.
Even though she has an ability that becomes useless once there are no more zombies in her lane, you still need to treat her as a real threat. There are some specific plants that are too risky to use in her presence, for instance; Pyrotechnician Zombie is immune to the Winter-mint plants' chilling or freezing effect, and ground plants like Potato Mine or Spikeweed can be instantly destroyed via summoning vases without destroying her or other zombies in the process. Regarding zombies, she also has some interesting synergies with some. First, Breakdancer Zombie can push her and other zombies forward, which can make the zombie launch more effective and destructive due to how far to the left the vase is. Second, any spawner like Imp Cannon or Arcade Zombie can supply her with many zombies, although this doesn't really apply to Disco-tron 3000 as the Disco Jetpack Zombies it summons are airborne. Third, All-Star Zombie and ZCorp Chair Racer can utilize the vases so that they can crash and instantly destroy the plant that they encounter upon landing; however, the latter cannot be launched by the chair anymore after landing, and lastly, zombies that move or destroy plants can synergize with Pyrotechnician Zombie to wreck your defenses from the inside.
==Gallery==
File:PyromaniacZombie1-transparent.png|Pyrotechnician Zombie HD
File:PyromaniacZombie2-alm.png|Pyrotechnician Zombie (Lawn)
File:PyromaniacZombie3-almicon.png|Pyrotechnician Zombie (Almanac Icon)
==In Other Languages==
==Trivia==
*This is Miss Pembroke's submission for the Summer Nights 2024 contest.
**This is also Miss Pembroke's second contest submission.
*Even though her name is Pyrotechnician Zombie, the images featured in this page label her as "Pyromaniac Zombie"