Pole Vaulting Zombie

*For the form in Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars, see Pole Vaulting Zombie (PvZ: AS)*

## In-game statistics

### First seen

Level 1-6

Some zombies take it further, aspire more, push themselves beyond the normal into greatness. That's Pole Vaulting Zombie right there. That is so him.

**Pole Vaulting Zombie** is a zombie with a pole appearing in *Plants vs. Zombies*. He vaults over the first plant he encounters, with the exception of Tall-nuts, Spikeweeds, and Spikerocks, by using his pole. He is the fourth zombie the player will encounter in Adventure Mode, and the first special zombie the player will encounter. He resembles an athlete of an Olympic event of the same name. His pool counterpart is Dolphin Rider Zombie.

## Suburban Almanac entry

 Toughness: medium
Speed: fast, then normal (after jump)
 Some zombies take it further, aspire more, push themselves beyond the normal into greatness. That's Pole Vaulting Zombie right there. That is so him.

## Description

Pole Vaulting Zombie is a blonde-haired, jersey-wearing track star zombie. He wears a blue sweatband on his head and wears a blue wristband on each of his wrists. His jersey is red with a white "0" imprinted on it, which is half visible. He also wears striped socks and red shoes.

## Overview

Pole Vaulting Zombie absorbs 340 damage per shot and he degrades upon absorbing 170 damage per shot before dying at 340 damage per shot. When he approaches most plants, Pole Vaulting Zombie will vault over the plant and abruptly lose his pole. His speed will become normal upon losing the pole.

## Encounters

* Adventure Mode: 1-6, 1-7, 1-9, 1-10, 2-4, 3-4, 3-5 (Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSiWare version), 3-9, 5-2, 5-10
* Mini-games: Wall-nut Bowling, Zombie Nimble Zombie Quick, Last Stand, Wall-nut Bowling 2, Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, Buttered Popcorn, Heavy Weapon, Heat Wave, Sunny Day
* Puzzle Mode: Scary Potter, Me Smash!, ZomBoogie, All your brainz r belong to us, I, Zombie Endless, all Last Stand (Puzzle Mode) levels except Last Stand: Fog
* Survival Mode: all levels
* Co-op Mode: all levels
* Others: Versus Mode

## Strategies

Use Tall-nuts to block Pole Vaulting Zombie or cheap plants (such as a Puff-shroom) to make him lose his pole. Squash also works great as it can kill a Pole Vaulting Zombie that vaulted over it, but its slow recharge time will not let you kill every Pole Vaulting Zombie. Using Magnet-shrooms does nothing, as the pole isn't made of metal.

If there are two Peashooters in a row or a Repeater when a Pole Vaulting Zombie has just entered, they will be able to take him down before he gets to the end of the row (Snow Peas are effectively the same). Chompers try to eat the zombie **after** he jumps and end up missing the zombie and biting the air. If the Pole Vaulting Zombie is slowed down via Snow Peas, Ice-shrooms or Winter Melons, Chomper is able to eat him before he can vault. The left-facing head of Split Pea can easily shoot down a Pole Vaulting Zombie after he vaults.
Placing a Wall-nut and then a Potato Mine on either side of it will be an effective strategy, as it is cost-efficient.

### I, Zombie

Pole Vaulting Zombies are cheap, durable, and non-metallic. Deploy these zombies to overcome obstacles, like Wall-nuts or Garlic or for cases where a fellow zombie will not survive Potato Mines. Pole Vaulting Zombies are useful in many situations, and they are interchangeable with Conehead Zombies, due to their superior speed. Never vault over a Split Pea or a Starfruit, as they can fire backwards. Using a Pole Vaulting Zombie against the Tall-nut in All your brainz r belong to us is also out of the question, since the Tall-nut cannot be vaulted over. A Ladder Zombie is more effective against a Tall-nut, and a Football Zombie can steamroll through Split Peas and Starfruits.

## Trivia

### General

* Pole Vaulting Zombie likes to eat the brains of gold medal winners, as stated in the *Plants vs. Zombies: Official Guide to Protecting Your Brains*.

### Specific to *Plants vs. Zombies*

* When a hypnotized zombie meets a Pole Vaulting Zombie, the Pole Vaulting Zombie will not eat or vault over the zombie, but they just run past the zombie while the zombie eats them.
* In Wall-nut Bowling 2, the Giant Wall-nut is the only Wall-nut which Pole Vaulting Zombies cannot jump over.
* When a Pole Vaulting Zombie tries to jump over a Cherry Bomb, Doom-shroom, or Jalapeno when they explode, Pole Vaulting Zombie will vaporize in midair without any ashes appearing.

* As seen in the concept design for the Pole Vaulting Zombie posted on the *Plants vs. Zombies* Facebook page, Pole Vaulting Zombie was originally going to use a bone to vault over plants.
* In I, Zombie, instead of vaulting over a brain, Pole Vaulting Zombie loses his pole (if he still has it) once he reaches the brain.
* He is shown in the icon for Zombie Nimble Zombie Quick.
* If a Pole Vaulting Zombie dies before he vaults over a plant, his pole will disappear.
* When a Pole Vaulting Zombie vaults over a plant, there is a bounce sound like mustache mode.
* Although the Pole Vaulting Zombie can jump over Chompers, if the zombie is slowed down, the Chomper will be able to eat him before he can do so.
	+ Chompers in the online version can eat him before he jumps, even if he is going at maximum speed.
* When a Pole Vaulting Zombie tries to jump over a Tall-nut, stars appear around their head. The same thing happens with Dolphin Rider Zombie and Pogo Zombie.
* There is a glitch that might occur, if a Pole Vaulting Zombie vaults over a Torchwood into a Snow Pea; the peas shot by that plant while it is getting eaten will go through the Pole Vaulting Zombie into the Torchwood without freezing or damaging with the normal pea the Pole Vaulting Zombie.
* In the online version, the Pole Vaulting Zombie loses an arm, but no bone can be seen. However, when he falls down a bone can be seen.
* He is the first vaulting zombie that appears in the game.
* Pole Vaulting Zombie has two obscured visual abnormalities: the right arm does not stick to the body, and the pole is not connected on both ends. This can be seen by replacing files with blank ones, although this is because the idle Pole Vaulting Zombie's arm and pole will not overlap.
* If a Pole Vaulting Zombie jumps over a Chomper in the Nintendo DS version, the Chomper appears to have taken a bite, but a few seconds later, the Pole Vaulting Zombie jumps over it and does not get eaten.
* When faced with a Cob Cannon, Pole Vaulting Zombies can jump over both spaces, but Dolphin Rider Zombies cannot.
	+ Though Pole Vaulting Zombie seems to step past half the Cob Cannon before vaulting over the other half, while Dolphin Rider Zombies cannot jump over two Lily Pads.
* The online Suburban Almanac entry has this zombie's name as "Polevault Zombie" instead of Pole Vaulting Zombie.
* Pole Vaulting Zombie is the only Day-encountered zombie that does not reappear in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*.
	+ He is also the first zombie encountered in *Plants vs. Zombies* that does not reappear at all in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*.
* If a Pole Vaulting Zombie vaults over an Explode-o-nut, he will survive the blow, unlike with Cherry Bomb.
* A glitch, that always occurs in the mobile versions, is that a Pole Vaulting Zombie will not make a disgusted face if he takes a bite out of a Garlic.
* There's a glitch that the ribbon in the zombie's pole will be orange, instead of red.

ru:Зомби с шестом
zh:撑杆跳僵尸
fr:Zombie Perchiste