Loch Cress Monster

Loch Cress Monster is a premium aquatic in , first introduced in the 11.4.1 update as part of the 'Loch Cress Monster's Water Season!' season. She is a multi-use instant-kill wall plant that waits for zombies to approach her, dragging the first zombie she encounters underwater. After dragging, she becomes dormant, attracting all zombies near her to the lane that she lies dormant on.
==Origins==
===Physiology, Naming and Imagery===
Loch Cress Monster is based on the real-life Watercress (otherwise known as the yellowcress) a species of aquatic flowering plants that come from the cabbage family, Brassicaceae. The hollow stems of watercress float on top of water, with the plant being one of the oldest known vegetables to be consumed by humans.
Loch Cress Monster is also inspired on the Loch Ness Monster (affectionately known as Nessie), a mythical creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness, a large freshwater lake located in the Scottish highlands. The Loch Ness Monster has been the subject to many searches and photographs, being one of the most hunted cryptids in cryptozoology.
Loch Cress Monster's name is a portmanteau of the words 'Watercress' (which is abbreviated to just 'cress'), the plant that she is based on, and 'Loch Ness Monster', which references the cryptid she is based off.
===Creation===
Loch Cress Monster is a plant created for the Aqua Arena 2024 Contest, hosted by Dartichoke Enjoyer.
==Overview ==
When planted, Loch Cress Monster behaves similarly to Scarecrop, waiting for a zombie to approach her before instantly killing them. This instant kill is visually similar to , dragging the zombie underwater. When faced with inedible targets, namely , , or boss zombies, Loch Cress Monster still attacks, dealing 400 to the target before becoming dormant.
After attacking, Loch Cress Monster rises above the water and starts to sleep, attracting all zombies adjacent to her in a 3x3 area in front of the tile she is planted on, similar to . This attraction works whenever she is dormant, not just when Loch Cress Monster initially rises out of the water. Like , Loch Cress Monster has a fixed dormant time of 17 seconds, the exact same as Chomper's chew time in .
Loch Cress Monster has the additional ability to move to different water tiles on the lawn when she is not dormant, allowing the player to use a single Loch Cress Monster to take down zombies in other lanes. This works similarly to , where players tap to "arm" Loch Cress Monster, then tap on a water tile to move her there. There is a cooldown of three seconds per use for switching tiles. This ability works with on the lawn, allowing players to move Loch Cress Monster from one Aqua Vine to another in regular levels.
Loch Cress Monster changes appearance to reflect her current health status, altering her look when she reaches 2000 and 1000 health. This appearance change also affects Loch Cress Monster when she is not dormant, allowing players to know her health status at any time.
Loch Cress Monster's drag ability contributes to the achievement.
== entry==
==Upgrades ==
=== effect===
When given , Loch Cress Monster attracts all zombies that are in a 3x3 area her, regardless of being dormant or not, before dragging three of them underwater. If Loch Cress Monster was previously dormant, she will wake up, allowing for an additional fourth drag to happen when a zombie gets close to her.
=== effect===
When boosted by , Loch Cress Monster's toughness will increase from 3000 to 9000 at Level 1. Unlike other boosts, this is scaled by level. Additionally, she will also perform her Plant Food effect.
===Mastery upgrades===
*Chance to Boost
*Toughness Bonus
==Strategies==
Loch Cress Monster is a somewhat versatile plant when it comes to strategy on water-based worlds or Thymed Events; being a plant that excels at targeting specific, "higher-tier" zombies on the lawn such as Octo Zombies, Surfer Zombies, and especially Fisherman Zombies in Big Wave Beach. This means that you use Loch Cress to assassinate a big zombie on the lawn, have her rise up and get eaten partially, before moving her to a different higher-tier zombie. Keep in mind though, that Loch Cress Monster's biggest weakness overall is that it is useless towards zombies like Mecha-Football Zombie or Gargantuars, as they only get dealt minimal damage overall towards them and can instant-kill her, either by pushing her off the lawn or smashing her.
With the plant's ability to move to different water tiles on the lawn and the long recharge of 30 seconds (in comparison to Tangle Kelp, who only has 20 and does the exact same general ability), it's important to realize that your Loch Cress Monster amount is going to always be a bit lower on numbers, so it is good to move them around when possible to create as many zombie bottle necks as possible.
Loch Cress Monster pairs extremely well with crowd-controlling plants, such as the lobbed-shot Melon-pult or Winter Melon, tile-based plants such as Lava Guava and Spikerock, or tap to aim plants such as Missile Toe or Banana Launcher. Since it attracts zombies after it instant-kills one of the time, this allows Loch Cress Monster to set up choke points on the lawn. Additionally, due to the plant's high health, this means that she can survive most zombie barrages in time for her to stop becoming dormant, especially with constant damage surrounding her.
Keep in mind that most worlds in Plants vs. Zombies 2 are completely unable to utilize Loch Cress Monster's abilities due to the lack of water. Aqua Vine does help with this, as the plant's projectiles now pierce due to Loch Cress Monster being aquatic, which helps with closing the choke point. But it does restrict Loch Cress Monster massively due to the fact that it is unable to use it's defensive abilities at all, as Aqua Vine is always eaten first. It is also costly to transport Loch Cress Monster to different Aqua Vines, as it costs 250 to put two of them down in the first place.
==Related achievements==
==Gallery==
Loch CressHD.png|HD Loch Cress Monster
Loch Cresshidden.png|HD Loch Cress Monster (less exposed)
Loch Cressfirstdegrade.png|Loch Cress Monster's first degrade (upon going below 2000 health)
Loch Cressseconddegrade.png|Loch Cress Monster's second degrade (upon going below 1000 health)
Loch CressSeedPacket1.png|Loch Cress Monster's seed packet
Loch CressSeedPacket2.png| seed packet
Loch CressSeedPacket3.png|Seed packet with cost
Loch CressSeedPacket4.png|Imitated seed packet with sun cost
==See also==
*Loch Cress
*Loch Moss
*Loch Noss
*Scarecrop
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*
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==Trivia==
* This is the first new plant Aster has ever made since Root Beer, which released on July 18th, 2022.
*Loch Cress Monster was originally going to be called Loch Moss, but was later changed after another page with the same name was released for the Aqua Arena 2024 Contest.
** The plant was renamed to Loch Cress, which was once again taken up as the page was being written, which led to the final name of Loch Cress Monster.
Category:Plants inspired off Loch Ness