Cactus

Cactus is a recurring plant. Cactus defends the player's brains by firing spikes at zombies.

Cactus is a unique character in that she has never had the same ability and attack style in any of her individual appearances, with her appearances in the two Garden Warfare games being the only time in the franchise she plays the exact same way.

In almanac entries and character descriptions she is typically depicted as a cool-headed, gentle and humble figure, which intentionally contrasts with her abrasive spiky exterior.

As of Plants vs. Zombies 3, she's appeared in seven games.

## Origins

Cactus could be based on any species in the genus Cactacae, though she closely resembles a saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) more, albeit with a red flower rather than a white flower.

Her ability to pop the balloons of Balloon Zombies may be based on how cacti can grow to be one of the tallest plants ever.

## History

### Plants vs. Zombies

In the original Plants vs. Zombies game, as well as all Chinese spin-off games based on it, Cactus is one of the first plants obtained in the Fog area, being unlocked by beating Level 4-2.

Cactus costs 125 sun and attacks by firing spikes at zombies. The spikes she shoots deal the same amount of damage as a standard pea projectile, effectively making her a slightly more expensive Peashooter whose projectiles are unaffected by Torchwood's ignition ability.

However, Cactus has a special ability wherein she stretches up into the air to pop the balloons of airborne Balloon Zombies, making her one of the three plants able to affect Balloon Zombie while he's still in the air.

### Garden Warfare subseries

In the *Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare* series of shooter games, Cactus serves as the sniper class of the plant team. Dealing heavy damage to zombies by firing spikes them at long range. The spikes she shoots also deal extra damage to zombies if Cactus lands a critical hit.

Due to her ranged based playstyle, Cactus' unzoomed primary weapon does not fair well in close quarters combat, causing her to rely on her abilities such as her Potato Mines in order to stand a fair chance against close ranged opponents.

Cactus, as with the other playable classes in the *Garden Warfare* series, also has numerous Character variants based on her, each having their own traits which differentiates them from the standard base character.

### Plants vs. Zombies 2

Cactus would finally make a long awaited return in *Plants vs. Zombies 2* as a premium plant tied to the Neon Mixtape Tour Part 1 teaser Piñata Parties.

She now costs 175 sun and the spikes she fires at zombies are now able to pierce through multiple targets, being able to damage three zombies normally. In addition to firing piercing projectiles at zombies, she now hides underground to deal ground based damage to any nearby zombies that walk on her.

Cactus is also able to stretch up into the air and instantly pop Balloon Zombies' balloon in an identical matter to how she did in the first game, stretching up and firing spikes. Cactus' attack is able to pop the balloons of Balloon Zombie's Big Brainz, Lawnbowl and Tutorial counterparts, but will not be able to instantly negate the flying ability of other zombies such as Zombie Parrot, Jetpack Zombie, and Bug Zombie.

### Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars

Cactus also made an appearance in the Chinese exclusive turn-based RPG game *Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars* as the second tier in the >Cactus line, evolving from Ball Cactus and evolving into Tree Cactus. She fired spikes as zombies as part of her main attack.

Her active ability was **Sharp Shot**, which dealt 580 damage to the furthest zombie in her lane, targeting the furthest zombie on the lawn if there was no zombie in her lane while her passive ability was **Weakness Detection**, which targeted the zombie with the lowest health and dealt 74 more damage than her standard attack.

Her soulmates were members of the Pepper line for an increase to her critical hit chance and members of either the Choy line or Coffee line and Bomb line together for an increase to her attack.

### Plants vs. Zombies Heroes

Cactus also reappears in the turn-based mobile card game *Plants vs. Zombies Heroes* as an Uncommon Premium member of the Guardian class. Cactus costs 2 sun play, 1-strength/4-health, the **Bullseye** trait, and is a member of both the Flower and Cactus tribes.

She is a fairly standard card, with her main draw being her high health and **Bulleye** trait, which makes her somewhat of an antithesis to the Pool Shark. Her **Bulleye** trait allows her to not charge the enemy hero's block meter when she attacks them directly.

### Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville

Cactus' latest appearance is in the third-person shooter game Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville as a Defend class for the plant team. She retains her role as the sniper class for the plants, and can now charge up her scope attack in order to deal more damage to zombies at a time but at the cost of using up more ammo.

Cactus' unzoomed attack has also been given a rework, now acting as rapid-fire, fully automatic machine gun, which gives her a better chance at defending herself at close range.

Cactus also lacks any Character variants based on her in this game, but instead has a large number of character upgrades, some of which grant abilities to Cactus' scoped and nonscoped weapons as well as her abilities.

### Talkweb mini-games

In Plants vs. Zombies 2: League, Cactus appears as a Shooter plant, being the 4th to be unlocked in the category, having 455 points of health, 37 for attack and 250 for range. She has 3 variants, namely, Cowboy Cactus, Mariner Cactus, and Soldier Cactus.

## Trivia

* She was originally going to appear in Plants vs. Zombies Adventures.
* in French translations of the series, she's erroneously addressed as male.