Rustbolt (PvZ:LW)

Rustbolt is the first mini-boss in The Sanctuary in Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World, appearing on Level 10A. As a mini-boss, Rustbolt does not have the ability to instantly clear lanes of plants and zombies or spawn zombies on his own (zombies will appear normally from the right side of the lawn during his battle). During his battle, Rustbolt works together with Brain Freeze and exploits Blizzard Peaks' gimmicks to attack your plants, namely the blizzard and avalanche gimmicks (Living Stone is automatically given during the level due to this).
Rustbolt is able to utilize a flamethrower that can launch 4 - 6 fire bolts on random plants on the lawn. Each fire bolt has a 30% chance to stray off and hit the corrupted seed pods in the level, which spawn The Wilted. The amount of Wilted that spawn depends on how many of the fire bolts hit the seed pods, with each hit spawning 1 - 3 Wilted plants. The fire bolts will deal 2000 DPS worth of damage, but deal no damage to fire and ice plants (ice plants will, however, get disabled for 3 seconds before they can recover from the attack).
Rustbolt can also use a shrink ray that targets a random 2×2 area on the lawn (while prioritizing targeting areas with more plants) and temporarily shrinks all plants in that area down (for 25 seconds), causing them to deal half the amount of damage they usually do and also have half health. The shrinking effect doesn't stack if those plants happen to be targeted again.
In this mini-boss fight and other mini-boss fights in The Sanctuary, large amounts of corrupted energy will concentrate on the battlefield 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 that can be created in the Reality rifts section of this page. Unlike normal boss fights, mini-boss fights like the one against Rustbolt is a normal level without a conveyor belt, but the moon in the background will enlarge due to the large amount of corrupted energy present, causing more moon to fall for the player to collect which should make the level somewhat easier.
==Almanac entry==
Rustbolt
Toughness: Undying
Speed: Hungry
A famous superzombie that will put your floral defenses to the test with his technological array of weaponry.
Special: Uses a modified flamethrower that launches fire bolts onto random plants or onto seed pods that create more Wilted plants
Special: Uses a shrink ray to temporarily shrink an area of plants, halving their damage output and health
Since young, Rustbolt always dreamed of being a superhero wearing an iron suit. He even had an imaginary friend who he would pretend to be his sidekick: Crustnut. Unfortunately one day he apparently got into an accident and Rustbolt has since been depressed. But now? He’s living the dream, he’s achieved what he’s wanted to become, and he dedicates it all to his sidekick imaginary friend Crustnut. Him and his crusty nuts will forever be remembered.
==Reality rifts==
During Rustbolt's battle, large amounts of stray corrupted energy surrounding the area can spontaneously create reality rifts. These rifts, unlike those from levels in level path E, are temporary, and, unlike previous corrupted boss fights, these rifts don't activate during certain phases but can activate and deactivate spontaneously at anytime. The following are the possible rifts that can be created:
* Blizzard rift - Also used by the Zombot Frost Wanderer. Blizzards are more frequent, but blow in random directions (either from the left as normally, or from the right, from upwards or from downwards), pushing zombies one tile towards the direction they blow in.
* Technical rift - The flamethrower may launch some ice bolts which freezes plants (fire and ice plants are immune as always, but this time fire plants get disabled temporarily) and the shrink ray may instead target zombies and enlarge them temporarily, causing the zombies to gain 50% damage resistance and do double damage.
Blizzard Peaks' naturally occurring cooling heat reality rift will also appear throughout the entire mini-boss fight (it is always active). You can read more about it in the introduction section of Blizzard Peaks' page.
==Phases==
Rustbolt is able to perform one of the following actions:
* He can use a flamethrower to launch fire bolts onto random plants. Some of the fire bolts may also have a chance to hit the corrupted seed pods instead, disturbing them and making more Wilted plants depending on how many fire bolts hit the seed pods.
* He can use a shrink ray to temporarily shrink a random 2×2 area of plants, prioritizing target areas that can result in shrinking more plants. This will halve the affected plants' health and damage output.
Phase	Health 	Summoned zombies	Attacks
1 	7000DPS 	* 	Launches fire bolts with a flamethrower, burning plants and occasionally disturbing corrupted seed pods.
2 	8000DPS 	** 	Uses a shrink ray to randomly shrink plants, halving their health and damage output.
3 	10000DPS	***** 	Launches fire bolts with a flamethrower, burning plants and occasionally disturbing corrupted seed pods.
Uses a shrink ray to randomly shrink plants, halving their health and damage output.
* - Can come in their Frostbitten form.
** - Mountain Goat Zombie appears in their corrupted form in this phase.
==Strategies==
Given that the battle against Rustbolt will involve Blizzard Peaks' gimmicks and cold/heat-related enemies (e.g. Frostbitten Zombies) and attacks (i.e. Rustbolt's flamethrower), it's much more strategic to use a defense that either utilizes fire or ice synergy, so try to bring as many plants into the fight that support this synergy.
Against Rustbolt's flamethrower, which can randomly destroy your plants and significantly damage your tougher ones, there's two main approaches you can take: either utilize the fire or ice synergy strategy mentioned previously, or focus on making a defense that is easy replenishable (any defense that is easy to build up quickly will do such as those that tend to use cheaper, fast-recharging plants). The former approach makes it so that your plants can't take any damage from the fire bolts that the flamethrower fires, albeit do mind your ice plants, as they will get stunned by it for a brief moment. The technical rift, however, can change the flamethrower to shoot ice bolts that briefly stuns fire plants instead, so neither fire nor ice plants really have a bigger advantage over the other during the battle, so pick whichever suits your own strategy. The latter approach gives you more freedom in utilizing other non-fire/ice plants for your defense and not limiting it to a narrow selection of plants to allow access to a bigger range of defense strategies, albeit the former approach is still recommended due to the other cold/heat-related challenges you'll have to face during the battle.
The shrink ray Rustbolt has is somewhat unavoidable, but thankfully its effects are still temporary so you can wait for the effects to wear off before the plants return to normal. If the shrink ray attack is clearly weakening your defense and you need to quickly return it to normal, you can still try the replenishing method mentioned previously to quickly replace your shrunken plants with new unshrunken ones, albeit this can get tedious to do. One other strategy you can use to weaken the effects of the shrink ray for offensive plants is to use a plant like Loudspeaker to speed your plants up. Since speed is not a factor that is affected by the shrink ray, the speed boost can make up for half of the damage reduction by allowing your plants to attack faster. For defensive plants, you can use plants like Treeze to stop zombies in their path to prevent them from eating through Treeze while you're still vulnerable to the shrink ray's effects, or you can use Evergreen which has a regenerative power that makes them able to last longer against zombies while they're still shrunken down (this requires another green plant to support them though).
Against the blizzard rift in the level, you can use the same strategy as during the Zombot Frost Wanderer battle, since the same reality rift is found there. For this rift, just ensure your defense is prepared to counter zombies if they come too close to your defenses or if they switch lanes (so having a strong defensive frontline and having plants prepared to take zombies down on all lanes). Since the reality rifts can now occur at any moment, unlike during the fight with the Zombot Frost Wanderer where the rift only appeared during the second phase, you'll need to be quicker with your preparations during the early game and continue to be on guard for the rest of the level. Additionally, because of the more frequent blizzards, you'll need to make sure that you've given Bur Coats to most of the plants that need it in your defense (or have at least placed the vulnerable plants next to fire/ice plants to warm them).
The technical rift has already been partly talked about previously when trying to counter Rustbolt's flamethrower, where the best method you can use is to utilize a defense that uses fire/ice synergy, since both fire and ice bolts will not do much to such defenses. The only difference in which defense you choose is where one will be slightly more vulnerable to fire bolts and the other to ice bolts due to the temporary stun. As for the shrink ray, the effects still somewhat have the same result: the zombies will temporarily become twice as powerful in terms of health and damage output against plants, except rather than a select number of plants being exposed to this effect, a select number of zombies are chosen to gain this power. You can still use the same strategy for the shrink ray as before, where you can use Loudspeaker to boost your plants and partly overcome the damage resistance the zombies have gained, and use plants like Treeze and Evergreen to stall the zombies for and resist their double damage for longer through different methods. However, you may be more likely to require strengthening your defense rather than your offense compared to when the shrink ray shrunk plants instead, since, unless you use brute force to defeat them quickly, the zombies are more likely to reach your defenses before they are defeated. As for the plants getting shrunk, there tend to be a greater number of offensive plants compared to defensive plants in most players' defenses, which makes offensive plants more likely to be targeted by the shrink ray and hence more likely requiring an offensive boost to counter it. Hence, it's good to have a power balance in both your offense and defense to counter the shrink ray whether or not the technical rift is actually active.
==Gallery==
Rustbolt (PvZ-LW).png|Rustbolt (HD)
Rustbolt in flight.png|Rustbolt in flight
Rustbolt using flamethrower.png|Rustbolt using his flamethrower
Rustbolt using shrink ray.png|Rustbolt using his shrink ray
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