ZomPop-Star

ZomPop-Star is a zombie encountered in the Hot, Hot, Pop! challenge in Plants vs. Zombies 2. They dash quickly towards the nearest wall in their lane, exploding in a 3x3 area with a short delay.
If there are no wall plants in the lane, they instead speed towards the nearest plant. The explosion damage scales with the plant's health, doing 55% of their maximum health if they're a wall plant, while non-wall plants will be dealt 35% of their maximum health, both in a 3x3 radius. When ZomPop-Star explodes, a butter effect will be applied on nearbly plants in a 3x3 radius, which stuns them for 3.5 seconds.
==Origins==
Pop Star is based on popcorn, a cooked corn kernel, and a pop star, a singer in the pop genre. Their design is partially based on Fang, a character originating from Brawl Stars.
==Appearance==
ZomPop-Star is a zombie wearing a red visor, baggy red pants with yellow suspenders, a white sleeveless shirt, and white rollerskates. They have puffy yellow hair that resembles popcorn, red makeup, white arm bracelets, and a red popcorn machine on his back. In his promotional material, he appears with much, much different styling and shading, notably having a full set of teeth with a missing tooth, compared to his regular sprite.
==Almanac entry==
==Overview==
ZomPop-Star absorbs 200 damage and his appearance changes upon absorbing 75 damage, which is when he loses his arm, before dying at 200 damage. When he first appears on the lawn, he will speed towards the nearest wall plant in the lane, ignoring other plants, and if there are none, will explode when arriving to the nearest plant.
The following is a list of plants he will target:
*Wall-nut
*Tall-nut
*Infi-nut
*Pea-nut
*Explode-o-nut
*Sweet Potato
*Chard Guard
*Endurian
*Primal Wall-nut
*Holly Barrier and his launched berries
*Pumpkin (note that the plant within is not affected by the explosion, but will be buttered)
*Gumnut
*Blockoli
*Bean Sprout
*Tomb Tangler
*Vamporicini
*Bamboo Spartan
==Encounters==
*Hot, Hot, Pop! - All levels
==Strategies==
ZomPop-Stars are dangerous threats to your defense, especially if you have vital defenses placed by your walls. ZomPop-Stars are essentially treated as 'disruption' zombies, making holes in your defense while also stunning nearby attacking plants, commonly being sent out during large waves along with small hordes.
A good way to defend against these zombies is keeping your attackers far in the back, placing your sun producers in the front to tank for them. They can also be defended against by placing weaker, cheaper plants like Puff-Shrooms and Stunions in the front, the former causing them explode earlier if there are no wall plants, and the second allowing for enough time for the attacking plants to finish them off. Due to their health being equal to a Basic Zombie, they can also be defeated relatively easy, however due to the fact they appear in groups of two and within hordes, it's suggested to bring either explosive plants like Cherry Bomb or Primal Potato Mine, or to bring splash damage plants like a powered Dusk Lobber or Melon Pult. Reinforce-mint and the plants under his mint family will be prime targets, so it's suggested to try and keep them as healthy as possible due to the amount of damage he does, using Reinforce-mint himself will also be a useful tactic as the Plant Food will add armor to the plants, letting them tank the damage easily.
Avoid planting your attacking plants too close to walls, as since ZomPop-Stars will target the walls, making your attackers vunerable to collateral damage. As such, it is not reccomended to bring melee plants like Bonk Choy, Chomper, or Snapdragon, however its cold variant is slightly less vunerable, but will still be hit by the butter effect if it is in-range. A strategy to combat them is to dig up your wall plants as soon as they appear, making them explode early as they hit the first plant in the lane.
ZomPop-Stars will usually be paired with zombies like Turquoise Skull Zombie, who can rampage through defenses when the plants stay buttered. Sometimes, ZomPop-Stars will also be paired with larger swarms of zombies, who will pick through the leftover defenses as the walls go down. ZomPop-Stars are the most dangerous when spawned in groups, so always be sure to have an explosive plant on hand or to have enough damage to deal with them.
==Gallery==
Zompopstaringame.png|ZomPop-Star in-game
Zompopstarhd.png|An HD sprite of ZomPop-Star
Zompopstaringamead.png|An ad for ZomPop-Star in-game
Zompopstaradtransparent.png|Ditto, but transparent
Zompopstarpromorender.png|A transparent render of ZomPop-Star used for promo material. Note the different skates and the teeth.
==Trivia==
*ZomPop-Star's design bears a resemblance to the Tennis Star, with the white shirt, puffy yellow hair, and the red apparrel.
*Akin to the Balloon Zombie and Zomboni from the first game, ZomPop-Star has a sound cue to when it spawns. Notably, it contains a leitmotif of the Night theme from the first game, Moongrains, specifically the horde version.
*ZomPop-Star incorporates the following themes:
** - Their main mechanic
** - Popcorn, along with the buttering effect
** - Rather than a traditional birthday party, it was instead interpreted as a general 'party', so was designed with a more 'funky' look in mind, thus the 'pop star' in their theming
*ZomPop-Star is the only zombie given a Zombie of the Week advertisement, used to show off the Hot, Hot, Pop! Thymed Event.
*This zombie is the first creation that FILIPN0F1SHSTICKF4ILURE has made for an actual contest.
Category:Zombies Category:F1SH's Stuff