Downtrodden Legionary

Downtrodden Legionary is a Zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2, encountered in Penny's Pursuit, Arena, and Piñata Parties, wearing ancient battle armor from a civilization long past. He arrives on the lawn via alien abduction (this is Italian for walking). He behaves as normal on the lawn until he's been on it for 5 seconds, in which he'll ready the spear he's carrying and throw it at the nearest plant in either his lane, the lane above, or the lane below. The spear does 200 damage to the plant he ends up throwing it at. If he gets within 2 tiles of a plant, he can also use the spear to deal damage from afar instead of needing to eat things. He'll keep throwing spears as long as his precious helmet and shield remain intact.
What if they don't remain intact? Well, then Downtrodden Legionary will have no choice but to employ his ancient self-preservation techniques. He's got two of these, one for if you destroy his shield first, and one if you destroy his helmet first. He's got absolutely zero chill.
If you destroy his shield first, Downtrodden Legionary will start moving at a Speedy speed, and charge your defense with his spear. When he's two tiles away from a plant, he'll begin swiping at them with his spear, which does damage across three lanes because of the spear's sheer length and style. The damage in question? 100 per swipe.
If you destroy his helmet first, however, he'll stand still for a moment and mentally prepare himself, then charge your defense with his shield like an All-Star, destroying the first plant he runs into and knocking himself back a tile in whiplash. He'll then sit there for a little, then charge again. He will do this constantly until you put him out of his misery. Stubborn.
If you somehow destroy both? He'll start using BOTH of his abilities at the same time, charging your defense with his spear to destroy two plants at once in his lane, and then dealing massive damage to plants in other lanes. Absolutely berserk. Chaos.
==Origins==
Downtrodden Legionary is primarily based on the Roman Zombies from Plants vs. Zombies 2. His spear and shield of choice are based on the pilum and scutum, which are ancient javelins and shields respectively, as depicted by the image being carried by ancient Romans.
==Overview==
Downtrodden Legionary absorbs 1220 damage per shot before defeat altogether. His shield can absorb 550 of that damage. It degrades once at 225 damage per shot, before falling apart at 550. His helmet absorbs 370, and degrades once at 185 damage per shot, before falling off. The zombie himself can absorb 300 damage per shot. His arm falls off at 150 damage per shot, before he dies and his journey ends at 300.
==Almanac==
==Strategies==
Downtrodden Legionary is a dangerous zombie. His constant spear throwing can easily make holes in your defenses and weaken your walls from range, and when his armor is broken, his self-preservation activities can very easily overwhelm you, especially in groups.
His spear throwing has several counters. While you can just use conventional wall plants like Wall-nut to block them off, he'll rack up a ton of damage to them over time and you'll probably need to replace them often. To circumvent this, you can plant beefier, better walls like Tall-nuts or fast recharging walls like Primal Wall-nut to easily replace walls that get really damaged. Some plants also counterattack: Chard Guard and Spring Bean bounce back spears that are thrown at them, dealing 150 damage to Downtrodden Legionary's shield. How about a taste of your own apples, pal?
As for his different attacks when he loses armor, there's different ways to deal with them both, starting with the shield charge. Downtrodden Legionary's shield charge is very dangerous, as it activates more often than Rodeo Legend Zombie's charge. The most effective solution is to stall him out with Primal Wall-nuts, but that isn't as possible when several Downtrodden Legionaries are repeatedly charging that lane. Chard Guard can knock them back whenever they try to charge him, and every knockback stuns them as if they hit a plant after charging. You can also block them off by spamming cheap plants in their path, such as Puff-shrooms and your sun producer of choice. Using one or more of these methods can effectively stall out the charging Legionaries enough to defeat them.
His spear is a different story. His range by using a spear makes him immune to plants like Chard Guard and other melee plants and lets him easily breach your defenses if your defense is compromised of them. So... don't use those guys. Yeah. Especially if your defense is straight shooters and melee support. It's made a lot easier to fend him off by planting a wall plant in front of him just before he gets to your defense, so he's only hitting the wall plant with the spear and nothing in adjacent lanes. His range also makes this a bit of a problem, since if he's in a crowd of other zombies, he can easily pick off your defense and be protected by being in a crowd of drinking buddies. Heavy splash damage plants like Winter Melon can circumvent this possibility, but if you're gonna be using Winter Melon you might as well just consult the strategies for the shield charge.
If he loses both items, then the big strategy is really just brute force. Walls won't be able to hold him for long, he'll be constantly charging at your defense, and if he does get in he'll be destroying things very quickly. Big, beefy raw damage and/or men will be the most effective. Since he has only 300 health without all his armor, it shouldn't be very difficult if you handle him well. Specific plants like Magnifying Grass would be very helpful for this, doing great damage in one shot and getting him down seamlessly.
==Trivia==
*His appearance uses sprites from Roman Zombie. No, that's it. It's just Roman Zombie. Congratulations!
*He was submitted to the Forgotten Past Duo Contest. Epic!
**This marks the creator's fourth contest submission, with his previous submissions being Dumpster Zombie, Battery Bomb Zombie, and Ghostest with the Mostest.
==Gallery==
DLegionaryHD.png|Downtrodden Legionary in HD
DLegionaryTile.png|Downtrodden Legionary as he appears in the almanac
Category:Creepes's Stuff
Category:Attacking zombies
Category:Attacking Zombies
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