Chili Bean

*For other usages of beans, see bean.*

Chili Beans deliver a crippling bout of gastrointestinal distress.

**Chili Bean** is the second plant obtained in Wild West in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. When a zombie eats him, they will be stunned for 1.5 seconds before dying, unleashing a trail of gas behind them that stuns other zombies in the lane for 7.5 seconds. Chili Bean and his gas cloud do not affect mechanical enemies. In the Chinese version, strong zombies such as a Poncho Zombie that are level 2 or above only suffers 1800 damage from him and do not get stunned. However, the zombies behind still get stunned.

## Origins

Chili Bean is based on the beans used to make chili con carne: chili beans. Most of the time the food is made of several varieties of the common bean (*Phaseolus vulgaris*) such as black-eyed peas, kidney beans, pinto beans, great northern beans, and navy beans. The effect of the zombie unleashing a trail of gas is based on when you eat chili beans the bacteria on the beans make you pass more gas.

## Almanac entry

**Note: The stats shown below only apply to Level 1.**

**Chili Bean**

SUN COST: 50

RECHARGE: 20

TOUGHNESS: 300

SPECIAL: Stun

RANGE: Touch

PLANT FOOD POWER: Duplication

FAMILY: Ail-mint

Chili Beans deliver a crippling bout of gastrointestinal distress.

Usage: on eaten
Special: eating zombie is destroyed and releases stunning gas

He's not blushing, he's trying to hold it in.

## Upgrades

### Plant Food effect

When Chili Bean is fed with Plant Food, three additional Chili Beans will be created, landing on unoccupied tiles.

### Ail-mint effect

When boosted by Ail-mint, Chili Bean's stun duration is increased by twelve seconds, and his plant food effect will now create ten duplicates.

### Costumed (China only)

He now creates one more Chill Bean, making four Chili Beans in total.

### Level upgrade (China only)

 Combat Training
 Cell Activation
 Fighting Power

## Strategies

Chili Bean is very useful as a "clutch plant" for quickly picking off tough zombies such as Buckethead Zombies, Knight Zombies, and Poncho Zombies, particularly when they appear unexpectedly during an ambush or are threatening endangered plants. The gas attack further expands his "clutch" ability by immobilizing enemies behind him, such as using one to kill a Knight Zombie and immobilize a Zombie King behind him. Using his Plant Food ability with Power Tiles or Tile Turnips can also flood the lawn with plenty of Chili Beans. He has a major drawback in that he requires the enemy to be able to eat and digest him, which means he is ineffective against some of the strongest zombies in the game, as they either do not eat plants (such as Gargantuars) or are immune to the effect (such as the machines in Far Future).

Compared to the Potato Mine, he is usually more of a clutch plant as he needs no "charge-up time," but the Potato Mine is cheaper and can damage almost any enemy, including multiple enemies, that approach him. As a weaker alternative to Chili Bean, you can use Stunion, as he is cheaper and works more quickly, but he only stuns zombies, as opposed to Chili Bean killing one and stunning the rest in the lane. However, Stunion does not require a zombie to eat him to activate his ability.

## Trivia

* If not eaten, he will release his own gas once in a while as part of an idle animation. When this happens, he will lose his costume if he is wearing it.
* He could kill a Disco-tron 3000 in the Chinese version. This is fixed when Dark Ages was released.
* When a Seagull Zombie eats him, the paralyzing gas comes from Seagull Zombie's head.
* In any levels with Dave's mold colonies on earlier updates, if the player uses Plant Food on him and one lands on the mold colonies, the objective can still be completed. This can also happen with any other plants that create duplicates of themselves with their Plant Food ability.
* As of the 2.1 update, he no longer makes Pianist Zombies faint and can no longer kill multiple zombies at once, but Zombie Bulls die instantly upon eating the Chili Bean, which is unusual due to the fact that the bull is a robot.
* If his gas stuns ten zombies at once, the player gets the Magical Fruit achievement.
* If the zombie that eats him is immobilized by butter before the zombie dies, the zombie will not die but will be stunned and release gas.
* If there are only two or fewer empty tiles, and the player gives him Plant Food, he will create extra Chili Beans depending on the number of empty tiles. If there are no empty tiles, he will play the animation, but will not create any extra Chili Beans.
* If a zombie is facing backward (via Sweet Potato's Plant Food, Prospector Zombie after his dynamite detonates, or pterodactyl) when he dies from eating the bean, he will release gas backward towards the house, but the zombies on the way will not be stunned, while zombies in front of him will be stunned without gas.
* He holds the record for being the plant with the shortest Almanac entry, at nine words (or 45 characters).
* From the 5.9 update to the 6.0 updates of the game, Chili Bean may not cause zombies to die when eaten. Sometimes he will get eaten but the zombie will be unaffected.
* If the zombie who ate him is defeated before it can release gas, it will not do so, wasting the Chili Bean.
* After an unknown update, Chili Bean regained the ability to defeat the Pharaoh zombie, even when his armor is intact.

## See also

* Hypno-shroom
* Magical Fruit
* Shadow-shroom

es:Frijol
pl: Chili Bean
ru:Боб Чили