Imitater (PvZ2)

*For other uses, see Imitater (disambiguation).*

## **Imitater**

* PvZ2
* PvZ2C

Imitaters let you use two of the same plant during a level!

Having studied French Theater at Julienne, the Imitater went to the streets with his art, and has perfected his technique he calls "Potato stuck in a box".

**Imitater** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. His special ability is that he can copy any plant and its abilities, except himself. He can be used to effectively cut the recharge time of plants in half, although he takes up another seed slot.

## History

The Imitater is a premium plant that can be purchased for $4.99, USD ($2.99, USD prior to the 5.9.1 update). Selecting the Imitater's seed packet causes it to imitate the previous seed selected, making it impossible to bring an Imitater plant without the regular version. After selecting, he will take up a slot as the imitated plant in a melancholy gray. The Imitater transforms notably faster in this game. However, the copied version will have the original color.

On August 13, 2015, PopCap wanted the players to vote Imitater or Squash, which one should cost gems for a limited time. On August 18, 2015, Imitater won the competition; and the day after that, he became available in the shop for 159 gems until August 25, 2015. This offer came about again around August 9th, 2016 to August 17th, 2016. The price is the same.

On April 19, 2017, Imitater was featured as the "Plant of the Week" in the store, claiming to be a "Limited Time Offer". However, in keeping with recent "Plant of the Week" offers, no price reduction has been offered, nor is the plant available for gems.

## Almanac entry

**Imitater**

SUN COST: ???

RECHARGE: ???

Imitaters let you use two of the same plant during a level!

Special: can imitate any other plant

Having studied French Theater at Julienne, the Imitater went to the streets with his art, and has perfected his technique he calls "Potato stuck in a box".

## Strategies

Imitater in this game is now a premium plant that must be purchased with a real-life currency. Imitater can now mimic plants in this game much more quickly than the previous one, saving approximately one second in transformation time. Additionally, he cannot be eaten in this game until he has finished transforming.

Imitater is extremely useful in Endless Zones, especially in higher levels, due to the fact that he allows the player to have two of a seed slot, which can be very powerful with the right set of plants.

Good candidates for imitation:

* Sunflower or other sun producing plants (faster sun development)
* Potato Mine and Primal Potato Mine (easily kills more zombies that appear on the lawn)
* Grave Buster (removes two tombstones, use this on Pyramid of Doom and Arthur's Challenge in levels with large number of tombstones)
* Cherry Bomb, Grapeshot and Bombegranate (massive damage to zombies in three different rows, and if Grapeshot, allows more grapes to bounce, not to mention an abundance in exploding seed traps if Bombegranate is chosen)
* Hot Potato (for melting two frozen blocks in Frostbite Caves)
* E.M.Peach (can permanently stun almost all zombies in Far Future)
* Thyme Warp (helps send more zombies back, additionally with its very slow recharge)
* Perfume-shroom (enchants two rows of dinosaurs)
* Moonflower (ramp up sun adjacency bonus quickly and synergize defense against early zombie rush)
* Power Lily (creates two Plant Food)
* Gold Bloom (produces 750 sun total)
* Shrinking Violet (can shrink all zombies on screen every fifteen seconds. This is especially useful in endless mode where many gargantuars can spawn at once.)
* Any other slow recharging plants
* Any plant boosted by the Zen Garden (the Imitater will also be boosted, maximizing the use of said boost)

During the above list, Power Lily is the best plant to choose to be imitated, if the player has this plant and Instant Recharge. This is due to that Plant Food can help the player recharge any slow recharging plant (including Power Mints) instantly.

As with the previous game, he can only copy one plant but this time, but in this game Imitater will mimic the seed slot directly above Imitater's. For example, if you have chosen Pea Pod first then underneath is an Imitater, it will mimic the Pea Pod. Generally, you can never, ever select the Imitater first this time. You have to chose the original seed first before the Imitater himself.
It is worth noting that Imitater cannot copy Power Mints such as Fila-mint and Reinforce-mint.

## Trivia

* In levels where the player must use multiple pre-selected plants, it's only possible to imitate the last pre-selected plant, as he only imitates the plant that's selected before him.
	+ In the seed selection, removing a plant that is imitated will also remove him. For example, if the player uses a Wall-nut and an Imitater to copy it, when the player removes the Wall-nut card, the card that imitates Wall-nut will also be removed.

* Imitated plants keep their same colors, not gray, similar to its version in the iOS and Android versions of the original game.
* From the 1.4.0/1.4.1 update of the Chinese version, the spinning animation was removed and it plants now like normal plants. However, in the 1.9.1 update the animation returns.
* When he copies a boosted plant, the Imitated version of the plant will also be boosted.
* Despite being unable to be upgraded, his seed packets can be obtained via Piñata Parties.
* If an Imitated Pea Pod is planted on an already existent Pea Pod, the imitation animation will cover the Pea Pod.
* In earlier versions it could be destroyed by zombies like Explorer Zombie. This was fixed in later updates.
* When it is imitating a defensive plant and the player uses Wall-nut First Aid it will not play it's animation.
* He cannot copy any Power Mints, nor he can be empowered by any Power Mints.

## References

1. ↑ *Plants vs. Zombies* Facebook page
2. ↑ Result of the vote

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