Swamp God Zombie

Swamp God Zombie is a zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that is introduced in the expansion levels of Jurassic Marsh, you may also encounter him in Penny's Pursuit, Arena, Thymed Events, and Piñata Parties.
Swamp God Zombie calls for his mosquitoes to pick up a piece of amber that he's pushing and throw at low-health zombies to freeze and restore half of their health, the amber also acts as a protective shield against damage similar to ice blocks where the zombie gets freed after destroying the environmental modifier. There are exceptions when it comes to giving zombies restoration, like Gargantuars, zombies that have their health already been restored, and etc.
Swamp God Zombie leaves a trail of brackish water that may summon a Diplocaulus at the rightmost tile when he is destroyed. These diplocauluses go deep into the brackish waters and throw zombies out, with them having a chance to throw one out with a cone, a bucket, or rarely, a fossil, an ice block, a knight helm, or any Brickhead variant. They usually do nothing and sink into the water while it's disappearing when they reach the end of the trail, but when a Diplocaulus encounters a plant that is near to them, they'll throw out a zombie and chomp it while attempting to dive back in, which splashes and slows plants in a 1x2 radius.
Due to his nature, he can fly over low-lying plants like Spikeweed, although he will not when it comes to low-lying arming plants. His Diplocaulus is afraid of explosions from instant plants like Cherry Bomb which makes them leave.
==Origins==
There are alot of things that Swamp God Zombie references in both design, ability, and other related information. Firstly, let's discuss about his name, the reason why he is called "Swamp God Zombie" is because of his influence and control over the diplocauluses and most notably, the mosquitoes. The reason why the mosquitoes are more notable is because some locals in South Florida back in the 19th century were so annoying that they called them "Swamp Angels", as well as the world he's in takes place in a marsh which is similar to a swamp due to both having the presence of water and kinds of plant life.
Speaking of, Swamp God Zombie's design and his first ability are based on mosquitoes. They are a family of small flies that were present and evolved during the Jurassic period and are mostly prevalent in South America, Africa, and Asia, they have a segmented body and a highly elongated mouthpart used for piercing or sucking nectar in all mosquitoes or blood when it comes to females. They are infamously known to be the insect with the highest kill rate and are also known to be the vectors of diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue and others. Another element of his design and his first ability are ambers, which are fossilized tree resin and another type of fossilization where the organism is entrapped in an inert environment and preserved. When you connect the former and the latter, they can allude to the scene in Jurassic Park where Mr. DNA explains how a dinosaur is recreated, in which they used a mosquito preserved by amber to extract the dinosaur blood it sucked millions of years ago. Swamp God Zombie's other ability features and utilizes the Diplocaulus. They are an extinct genus of amphibians from the family Diplocaulidae that lived through the Jurassic period and known for their wide, boomerang-shaped heads.
In terms of his design, some elements are based on Angelo, an epic-rarity marksman from Brawl Stars that shoots long-ranged mosquito arrows that gradually deal more damage before releasing. Other elements like his hat reference Hermeses' hat because of the cave painting of the pterodactyl wing.
==Overview==
Swamp God Zombie absorbs 320 damage per shot before being defeated. When he absorbs 190 damage per shot, his arm is detached and he ultimately gets rendered defeated when he absorbs 320 damage per shot. His and the frozen zombie's amber block both absorbs 475 damage per shot, with it having noticable cracks when it absorbs 235 damage per shot and eventually breaks when it absorbs 475 damage per shot.
The Diplocaulus gives an equal chance (25%) for the zombies to spawn when it comes to worlds with expansions, Dark Ages, Frostbite Caves, and Jurassic Marsh, although the latter will only feature Fossilhead Zombie instead of Amberhead Zombie. If it comes to worlds without an extra armored variant and when it gets perfumed, the basic has a 50% chance to spawn and both the conehead and the buckethead have a 25% chance to spawn. When they splash at plants, the slowing effect will last 8s.
Below is the list of zombies that Swamp God Zombie cannot freeze and restore health:
*Gargantuars
*Healer Zombie
*General Zombies
*Zombots
==Almanac Entry==
==Encounters==
*Jurassic Marsh (Expansion)
*Penny's Pursuit (Other Events)
*Arena (Other Tournaments)
*Thymed Events
*Piñata Parties
==Strategies==
Swamp God Zombie is a dangerous zombie that you should be careful for due to his abilities, even though he doesn't lean on offense he can directly contribute to your loss on the stage he's present in by supporting other zombies. His first ability keeps himself and other zombies alive via restoring health and giving protection by freezing zombies in his amber, you can see what's threatening about the ability because of the zombies present in Jurassic Marsh which usually have high-health, as well as he can support other dangerous zombies such as Octo Zombie so that they can leave large holes in your defenses that the zombies can enter in. While the first ability can be effective alone, the second ability is even more efficient when it's synergized with the first one or when it is on its own. As mentioned before, Swamp God Zombie leaves behind a trail of water that can summon a zombie-throwing Diplocaulus once he is defeated. When his speed is paired with his durability and this ability, he can make the amount of zombies that the Diplocaulus can supply larger and eventually slow down your plants. When these two abilities synergize, Swamp God Zombie can be a formidable opponent to take down as the first one makes the zombies more durable and ensures his protection while the second one makes incoming Swamp God Zombies utilize what they have been given.
Firstly, let's talk about Swamp God Zombie's strengths and weaknesses, we'll start with the former. Since it is slower than the average zombie, most zombies in Jurassic Marsh tend to protect him and let him grow more dangerous quickly. To counter this, you need to use piercing plants such as Bloomerang or Laser Bean, but since Swamp God Zombie and his amber block are two separate things the latter would most likely take the hit if there are two zombies infront of Swamp God Zombie, so Laser Bean is recommended to wipe out Swamp God Zombie and the zombies that protect him. Other options to choose and plant are Dartichoke as she can prioritize Swamp God Zombie instead of the zombies that protect him, instant plants like Jalapeno to instantly ash him and the zombies in his lane, Primal Peashooter, Chard Guard, or any other knockbacking plant can be useful as they can move them on the front and put Swamp God Zombie in an exposed position.
In situations, you may use armed plants to instantly kill him, Primal Potato Mine is recommended as the explosion also affects other zombies in a 3x3 radius. Perfume-Shroom is also another situational plant to use as she can charm dinosaurs into defeating advancing zombies and potentially destroying Swamp God Zombie, but since she is situational, you need to be wary on when you plant her because a charmed raptor may be one of your most valuable assets mainly because they can move around faster than Swamp God Zombie. If he is in an exposed position, utilize all of your high-damaging plants like Citron or any damaging instant plant to kill him off as soon as possible, but since he and his amber block are very durable, it buys time for other zombies to advance, go infront of him, and take the hit. To prevent this from happening, you need to use defensive plants and plant them on a faraway tile so the incoming zombies are distracted.
As both of his abilities are already threatening enough, you need to take drastic measures in order to stop him from performing them. As his amber block is the main source for freezing and restoring the health of zombies, as mentioned before, you need to use plants that deal alot of damage towards it so that his performance is prevented and he can be finally attacked. If you hypothetically don't have these plants, you can put in stalling plants to stop him from supporting zombies and expanding his trail of water, plants that stun or freeze like Kernel-pult or defensive plants like Wall-nut are recommended to use as it distracts and stops him from moving completely. The notable plants to use are obviously stunning and freezing plants, Chard Guard so that Swamp God Zombie gets knockbacked doesn't advance along with his trail of water, damaging defensive plants as Explode-o-Nut as he can instantly destroy him, and Ents due to it's healing and damaging capabilities once eaten if you're in the Chinese Version.
If the Diplocaulus approaches your lawn, do not leave it unchecked as they'll overwhelm the lane that they are in with the zombies that they're summoning, they may be a tough foe due to the ability that they wield, but the Diplocauluses' will become easy to deal with once you know what to do when they arrive. The most common and effective way to deal with the Diplocaulus is Perfume-Shroom as they can temporarily aid you by throwing out zomboids when they are charmed, but if you hypothetically don't have her in your seed slots, you must improvise and adapt in order to deal with this scenario. For the zombies that they throw out of the water trail, you can plant a defensive plant on the tile that the zombie is on to stop them from approaching your house, and if the Diplocaulus is gone, you can utilize Hurrikale to push them back to the rightmost column followed by an insta-killer plant to finish the job. Since they are scared of explosions and will disappear after witnessing three of them, it is recommended to use Explode-o-Nut as bait because of their tendency to destroy things that are in their way, you are allowed to use explosive instant plants, but make sure the Diplocauluses' head has popped out of the water since they would be unaffected if it wasn't the case. When the Diplocaulus approaches the end of the trail and a plant is nearby, you need to make sure and be careful to prevent your plants being slowed, you need to plant a sacrificial plant in front of the water trail's end, and when the Diplocaulus jumps and prepares to splash your plants, plant another sacrificial plant in time so that the two can take the slowing effect instead, if you don't do these and your plants are affected, make sure to replace them as quick as you can.
With the zombie having some weaknesses, it also has some strengths and advantages that you need to be aware of so you don't slip up. If Thyme Warp is planted in any situation that he is in, they'll set off his mosquitoes to fully heal the amber block while he is getting teleported back to the rightmost column as well as it'll restore the health of his meatshields. Any non-arming ground plants like Spikeweed or Bramble Bush will prove useless against him due to his ability of flying over them, but [Olive Pit] is an exception to his special ability so you can utilize that against him.
In terms of synergies with other zombies, he has alot of them. In Ancient Egypt, he can support Pharaoh Zombie and Camel Zombie with the former having his sarcophagus back in its second phase while the latter's amber form has three but weaker amber blocks, both of these help in protecting Tomb Raiser Zombie and Explorer Zombie so that they can overwhelm your defenses. In Pirate Seas, Swamp God Zombie can obviously support and protect his comrades with Imp Cannon serving as a supplier, but a synergy that really stands out the most is Pirate Captain Zombie. If he gets freed from the amber block, his parrot will be replaced with a mosquito that is tougher and faster than what Pirate Captain Zombie had before. In Wild West, Pianist Zombie only plays one note before getting frozen, which allows him to make zombies move lanes even after he gets frozen. Since his Diplocaulus can throw out the basic zombies of the world they're in, Pianist Zombie can make use of them. He can support deadly mechs such as Mecha-Football Zombie so that they're in the lawn long enough to make a hole in your defenses if he is in Far Future. If he is in Dark Ages, while Swamp God Zombie can support Jester Zombie and Wizard Zombie, his Diplocaulus can serve as a supplier for both him and Zombie King. In Big Wave Beach, Octo Zombie's octopi gains sticky amber that makes them tougher after the amber block that they are frozen on gets destroyed. Swamp God Zombie can help Hunter Zombie on freezing plants and Troglobite can push the amber blocks in Frostbite Caves. In Lost City, Imp Porter can now summon Adventurer Zombies that have mosquitoes that speed them up if he's released from the amber. In Neon Mixtape Tour, a frozen Glitter Zombie's rainbow trail will still be in effect even after the pop jam ends which will prove useful in protection. He can weaponize both the zombies and dinosaurs and put them into good use if he is in Jurassic Marsh, and lastly, Modern Day's portal gimmick serves as a supplier as well as the All-Star Zombie will push the amber block and charge again if he is in contact with one.
==Gallery==
File:Swampgod1-transparent.png|Swamp God Zombie HD
File:Swampgod2-alm.png|Swamp God Zombie (Almanac)
File:Swampgod3-almicon.png|Swamp God Zombie (Almanac Icon)
==In other languages==
==Trivia==
*This page is a submission for the Wacky Worlds contest that is made by Miss Pembroke.