Skullcap

Skullcap is the tenth plant unlocked in The Sanctuary in Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World, after beating Level 25A. Skullcap is a shadow plant that conjures and shoots shadowy, skull-shaped projectiles that disorient zombies on hit for 10 seconds, which causes them to hallucinate figures that take on the form of skulls (see gallery for how this looks like). Disoriented zombies have a 50% chance to bite themselves whenever they attempt to bite a plant, causing the damage to be dealt to them instead. Special attacks like Buggy Zombie running over plants or Landscaper Zombie’s herbicide clouds are unaffected by disorientation, and Gargantuars cannot be disoriented unless Skullcap is powered.
Unlike other shadow plants, Skullcap needs to be powered by two Moonflowers in order to be fully powered and gain special boosts. But, however, Skullcap will still have an intermediate stage (change in appearance) when he is only powered by one Moonflower (see gallery) and a slight damage increase (from 30 to 40 DPS). When powered, Skullcap’s projectiles gain a damage increase (from 30 to 50 DPS) and gain the following abilities:
*Powering other shadow plants it passes for 3 seconds. If the projectiles attempt to power another Skullcap, that Skullcap must be powered by one Moonflower before that Skullcap can be fully powered.
*Splash disorientation and spreading the disorientation effect to other zombies in a 3×3 area when hitting a zombie (albeit no damage is inflicted and the splash disorientation only lasts for 5 seconds).
*Gargantuar disorientation, but the projectiles have to hit the Gargantuars directly rather than disorienting them from splash effects. Gargantuars will deal 900 DPS worth of damage when they attack themselves.
==Origins==
Skullcap is based on the genus of flowering plants with the same common name (scientific name being Scutellaria). The common name was derived from the plant’s similar structure to “miniature medieval helmets”.
The “skull” part of the name refers to how Skullcap and their projectiles appear like skulls, which are loosely related to themes of darkness, hence the fact that Skullcap is a shadow plant and can cause zombies to hallucinate and become disoriented.
==Almanac entry==
Skullcap
Sun cost: 200
Recharge: Mediocre
Fires skull-like projectiles that disorient most zombies. When powered, skulls emit an aura that temporarily powers shadow plants and does splash disorientation and affects Gargantuars.
Special: Zombies hit by skulls are disoriented, giving them a 50% chance to attack themselves whenever they try to attack
Special: Temporarily powers shadow plants with its skulls, gains splash disorientation effects and can disorient Gargantuars when powered
Weakness: Requires two Moonflowers to be fully powered
“Hey Skullcap!”, greets Moonflower with a pleasant smile. “MY EYES!!!”, screams Skullcap, as his eyes are gently set aflame by Moonflower’s shadow aura. “Hey Skullcap!”, greets a clone of Moonflower that came from who knows where. As the flames in his eyes start to intensify, Skullcap harmoniously continues, “No, no more— AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—”.
==Upgrades==
===Plant Food power===
When fed with Plant Food, Skullcap emits a dark mist (similar in appearance to his projectiles) across the entire lawn that powers all shadow plants and disorients and also blinds all zombies temporarily. The blinding effect causes zombies to also attempt to attack each other when they come into contact with one another, similarly to Thrash Thrush’s blinding effect. The mist lasts for 15 seconds before it disappears and the effects it gives wears off.
===Stat tiers===
Stat 	Tier 1 	Tier 2 	Tier 3 	Tier 4	Tier 5
Strength 	
Unpowered - 20 DPS
Intermediate - 25 DPS
Powered - 35 DPS	
Unpowered - 25 DPS
Intermediate - 35 DPS
Powered - 45 DPS	
Unpowered - 30 DPS
Intermediate - 40 DPS
Powered - 50 DPS	
Unpowered - 35 DPS
Intermediate - 45 DPS
Powered - 60 DPS
(Unlock cost: 1 Strength Token)	
Unpowered - 40 DPS
Intermediate - 55 DPS
Powered - 75 DPS
(Unlock cost: 2 Strength Tokens)
Toughness 	50 DPS 	200 DPS 	300 DPS 	
400 DPS
(Unlock cost: 1 Toughness Token)	
550 DPS
(Unlock cost: 2 Toughness Tokens)
Sun cost 	300 sun 	250 sun 	200 sun 	
150 sun
(Unlock cost: 1 Sun cost Token)	
100 sun
(Unlock cost: 2 Sun cost Tokens)
Recharge 	25 seconds	20 seconds 	15 seconds 	
10 seconds
(Unlock cost: 1 Recharge Token)	
5 seconds
(Unlock cost: 2 Recharge Tokens)
Firing rate	2 seconds 	1.75 seconds	1.5 seconds	
1.25 seconds
(Unlock cost: 1 Firing rate Token)	
1 second
(Unlock cost: 2 Firing rate Tokens)
More about the upgrading system here.
==Strategies==
Skullcap's disorientation effects it inflicts is an interesting albeit niche ability, and is best for giving zombies a hard time from trying to eat your plants. This makes Skullcap good at stalling zombies who have breached your defenses, giving you enough time to try to deal with them and recover from the imminent threat(s). And even before they breach your defenses, the disorientation effect is also effective at whittling down zombies who try to eat through your defensive plants, since their high health and the high chances of a zombie attacking themselves when disoriented are sure to dish out a good amount of damage to them.
Due to the fact that zombies need to attack plants for the disorientation effect to debilitate them, however, pairing Skullcap with other plants whose strategy is slowing down zombies before they reach your defenses (like chilling plants) may not be the best idea, as the zombies may be defeated before the disorientation effect even gets to play its part. Therefore, Skullcap is best used in situations where the zombie horde is overwhelming enough to the point that most zombies would end up reaching your defenses before you can even defeat them.
Skullcap is best used when they are fully powered, where their damage gains a small boost, their disorientation effect splashes to nearby zombies and they can also disorient Gargantuars (unlike in their unpowered state), which boosts Skullcap's abilities as a whole. Another interesting factor to take into consideration, however, is the fact that Skullcap also gains the ability to power other shadow plants in their lane (in front of them) when they're fully powered. If you utilise shadow plant synergy heavily, this can allow you to make some convenient changes to your defense. Firstly, you do not need to spread out Moonflowers across your defense in order to power your shadow plants anymore, as having fully powered Skullcaps at the back of your lawn (with your Moonflowers, of course) can power your entire shadow plant defense as long as the Skullcaps are still firing their projectiles. Secondly, some shadow plants like Undeadnettle, which need to be planted outside of your defense to be used, can be powered via Skullcap's projectiles without needing to sacrifice a Moonflower in order to do so, so long as these projectiles are not blocked by any obstacles. This gives Skullcap another use if there aren't that many zombies for them to target who would be greatly affected by the disorientation effect.
==Trivia==
*I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that almanac entry’s flavour text.
==Gallery==
Skullcap.png|Skullcap (HD)
Skullcap's costume.png|Costume
Seed packet (Skullcap).png|Seed packet
Skullcap's flower (no skull).png|Skullcap without the skull
Skullcap (intermediate form).png|Skullcap's intermediate form when powered by 1 Moonflower
Skullcap (powered form).png|Skullcap's powered form (powered by 2 Moonflowers)
Skullcap's projectile.png|Skullcap's projectile when unpowered
Skullcap's powered projectile.png|Skullcap's projectile when powered
Disoriented conehead hallucinating skulls.png|A disoriented Conehead Zombie hallucinating
Skullcap idling.gif|Idling
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