Jacket Potato

Jacket Potato is a plant that will eventually feature in the game Plants vs. Zombies: Rift of the Taco.
Jacket Potato is a potato that wears a red beanie and a brown jacket. Jacket Potato wraps his arms around any bordering plant currently being eaten, the plant that has Jacket Potato's arms wrapped around itself is immune and causes Jacket Potato to take the damage itself. All status effects dealt to the wrapped-around plant are now also transferred to Jacket Potato and made null since Jacket Potato is immune to status effects. When Jacket Potato has taken 2000 damage, his beanie falls off and hot sticky cheese gets flung from Jacket Potato's head every 10 seconds. This sticky cheese can trap up to 6 zombies and lasts for 7 seconds. When eaten, Jacket Potato rolls forward in his lane dealing 300 damage to zombies.
== Origins ==
Jacket Potato draws inspiration from the real-life baked potato, often referred to as a "jacket potato" in British English. A "jacket potato" is a term commonly used in the United Kingdom to describe a baked potato with the name coming from the idea that the potato is cooked in its "jacket" (skin), which becomes crispy while the inside stays soft and fluffy. The baked potato is a comfort food often topped with butter, cheese, beans, or other savoury fillings, highlighting its versatility and warmth. Jacket Potato visually has cheese and savoury fillings visible on his chest. His ability also flings sticky cheese which references this.
Jacket Potato also plays on words with the term "Jacket Potato" by also wearing a dark brown jacket. This jacket mimics Jacket Potato's skin immunity to all negative effects. His larger size also refers to him having one of the highest base plant toughness in the game and his helpful natures causes him to help others when attacked by the zombie threat.
File:Image 2024-07-26 200656606.png|An image of the most common traditional Jacket Potato with it being served alongside grated cheese and baked beans.
File:Image 2024-07-26 200536963.png|A standard brown jacket which Jacket Potato may be wearing.
== About ==
Jacket Potato protects and wraps his arms around either the plant Infront of behind himself when that plant is being eaten by zombies or hit by projectiles. While doing so, the protected plant is immune to any negative status effects alongside Jacket Potato who is immune to them in general. When Jacket Potato has lost 2000 toughness, his beanie falls off and he starts flinging sticky cheese from his head every 10 seconds with it being able to trap up to 6 zombies in a single cluster of cheese which lasts for 7 seconds. After Jacket Potato has lost an additional 4000 toughness, he rolls forward in his lane dealing 300 damage to each zombie with no pierce cap, this damage is enough to defeat a regular Basic Zombie.
Jacket Potato has a starting cost of 200 sun, a recharge time of 20 seconds and 6000 total toughness with the beanie having 2000 toughness and the rest of Jacket Potato having 2000 toughness. Jacket Potato is part of the Reinforce-mint power mint family.
== Almanac Entry ==
== Upgrades ==
===Plant Food effect===
When fed with Plant Food, Jacket Potato sends out a rolling potato hoard with around 5-8 potatoes in random lanes, they each deal 300 damage.
===Reinforce-mint effect===
When boosted by Reinforce-mint, Jacket Potato launches a rolling potato every 9 seconds, gives the plant he protects an additional 20% firerate buff and activates his plant food effect.
===Level Upgrades===
Level	Seed packets	Coins	Upgrades	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades
Level	Seed packets	Coins	Sun Cost	Recharge 	Protected Plant Firerate Buff	Sticky Cheese Duration	Sticky Cheese Total Zombies That Can Be Trapped	Toughness
1 	0 	0 	150 	20 seconds	0% Buff 	7 Seconds 	6 Zombies 	6000 (2000/4000)
2 	50 	0 	150 	20 seconds	0% Buff 	7 Seconds 	6 Zombies 	6500 (2250/4250)
3 	100 	0 	150 	19 seconds	0% Buff 	7 Seconds 	7 Zombies 	6500 (2250/4250)
4 	200 	0 	150 	19 seconds	10% Buff 	8 Seconds 	7 Zombies 	6500 (2250/4250)
5 	300 	0 	150 	18 seconds	10% Buff 	8 Seconds 	7 Zombies 	6500 (2250/4250)
6 	400 	0 	125 	18 seconds	10% Buff 	8 Seconds 	8 Zombies 	6500 (2250/4250)
7 	500 	0 	125 	17 seconds	15% Buff 	9 Seconds 	8 Zombies 	7000 (2500/4500)
8 	600 	0 	125 	17 seconds	15% Buff 	9 Seconds 	9 Zombies 	7000 (2500/4500)
9 	800 	0 	125 	17 seconds	20% Buff 	9 Seconds 	9 Zombies 	7000 (2500/4500)
10 	1,000 	0 	125 	15 seconds	20% Buff 	10 Seconds 	10 Zombies 	7000 (2500/4500)
===Mastery upgrades===
*Even Stickier Cheese
*Spuddy Supporter
==Strategies==
Jacket Potato is a very viable defensive plant that even serves as being a decent support plant when levelled up. Jacket Potato and the plant he is protecting both are immune to status effects which would make Jacket Potato a useful choice in levels with Hunter Zombie as they can't freeze Jacket Potato. Jacket Potato is on the more expensive side when compared to other defensive plants such as Primal Wall-nut or Endurian but is able to stand himself out from the others. His 200 sun cost allows him to be used quite early on in levels which allows for him to be used to help set up early defences and be used in difficult Brain Busters that include negative status effects.
Jacket Potato protects an adjacent plant when they are being eaten which causes Jacket Potato to be a very good defensive option for ambushes such as when hoards of Lost Pilot Zombies land in Lost City deep into the plant defences. Jacket Potato has an initial 6000 toughness with 2000 being for his beanie and 4000 for the rest of his body which puts him at a middle ground between Wall-nut and Tall-nut in terms of hp however Jacket Potato is able to properly defend himself. When Jacket Potato has taken 2000 damage while protecting plants, his beanie falls off to reveal his hot sticky cheese supply atop his head, he starts flinging this cheese onto random tiles on the lawn for 7 seconds and can trap up to 6 zombies at level 1. This provides Jacket Potato some use when trying to stall out levels for more sun or more time to set up defences. This also allows a large group of zombies to cluster in a small area providing plants that deal splash damage a good use in certain situations.
When eaten, Jacket Potato rolls out as a rolling potato dealing 300 damage to each zombie the potato hits, which is enough to instantly kill a Basic Zombie, with no pierce cap to the number of zombies that the rolling potato can hit. Jacket Potato is at his strongest when he is played aggressively as he can protect normally vulnerable plants when placed further up the lawn, cluster up hoards of zombies and deal decent damage to zombies when defeated. Jacket Potato's sticky cheese ability only activates when Jacket Potato has already taken 2000 damage so he must be used in situations of a level where there is a high zombie count. If placed at the back of the lawn, Jacket Potato should only be placed there for his ability to protect a plant from ambushes or zombies such as Prospector Zombie because neither his sticky cheese ability or rolling potato ability will become available to the player if there is no zombie threat there.
Jacket Potato can't really be supported by other plants apart from Reinforce-mint since his main aim is to help other plants. One plant that might benefit from Jacket Potato's abilities could be Chomper since Chomper becomes very vulnerable after eating a plant, has a long resting time and struggles to deal with hordes. Another plant that could benefit from Jacket Potato being used is Bowling Bulb as Jacket Potato's sticky cheese can group up zombies for Bowling Bulb to hit and Jacket Potato protects Bowling Bulb from being easily overrun by zombies.
In terms of worlds, Jacket Potato works quite well in worlds with large groups of zombies spawning such as Modern Day because Jacket Potato's sticky cheese has lots of zombies to cluster into an area. Since Jacket Potato is immune to status effects and the plant he protects is also immune, Jacket Potato would be extremely helpful in Frostbite Caves as he and the plant he protects would be immune to frost. Jacket Potato may also help in worlds with high frequencies of ambushes such as Ancient Egypt, Dark Ages, Pirate Seas, or Lost City as Jacket Potato can protect valuable plants from being eaten. Jacket Potato is also useful at protecting from attacks from behind the main frontline so his uses extend to the Wild West and Jurassic Marsh. Jacket Potato would be less useful in Big Wave Beach due to the water preventing sticky cheese from melting into the water tiles.
==Gallery==
File:Jacket Potato.png|An image of Jacket Potato on the lawn.
File:Jacket Zoom.png|A zoomed in image of Jacket Potato on the lawn.
File:Jacket Potato bLANK.png|A blank image of Jacket Potato.
File:Jacket Potato Ingame.png|An image showing Jacket Potato being used ingame in Lost City alongside Bowling Bulb which benefits greatly from his use.
==Trivia==
*Jacket Potato was an entry for the 2024 Plant Contest