Snapdragon

*Snapdragons breathe fire that causes damage in 6 adjacent tiles.*

**Although the most powerful dragon in the plant kingdom, he still dreams of wings and seeing the world beneath him.**

**Snapdragon** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the second plant obtained in Pirate Seas. He is unlocked after beating Pirate Seas - Day 3.

Snapdragon attacks zombies by spitting flames in a 3x2 area every 1.85-2 seconds, dealing 30 damage to any zombies within that area. Snapdragon is immune to the freezing winds in Frostbite Caves, but is incapable of generating heat to thaw nearby plants.

## Almanac entry

**Snapdragon**

Snapdragons breathe fire that causes damage in 6 adjacent tiles.

Area: damages all zombies in the 6 tiles in front of it

Although the most powerful dragon in the plant kingdom, he still dreams of wings and seeing the world beneath him.

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Snapdragon will fly up and release a burst of fire in a 3x3 square in front of him, dealing 1800 damage to all affected enemies.

## Strategies

Thanks to his combination of area damage and wide multi-lane range, Snapdragon has a unique advantage in handling zombies along the front line. His flames can pass through swathes of low health zombies, sweeping early Basic Zombies from above and below, and later providing crucial clean-up when tougher waves approach the main defense.

Snapdragon's greatest strength, though, comes from his ability to work in numbers. His range makes him best suited for planting along two whole columns (with wall plants deployed in front), allowing for up to 6x the carnage in the central three lanes. Through the use of Pumpkin, Snapdragons can be further expanded to fill three columns, setting the front line alight with enough area damage to handily sweep regular zombies.

However, Snapdragon's range makes it just as easy for him to be dismantled. Disruptors such as Excavator Zombie, MC Zom-B and Fisherman Zombie can manipulate and destroy the frontline, often out-ranging the flames outright. High health zombies are also more resistant to the area damage; when Snapdragons are built in whole columns, less damage is dealt along the top and bottom lanes, making said lanes particularly vulnerable to high health zombies. As such, it is important to complement Snapdragon's short range power with methods of defeating tougher zombies at range; this may be done with any standard offensive plants, heavy damagers like Witch Hazel and Citron, or through instant-use and manual fire plants that can directly target Snapdragon's weaknesses, for example. Plants like Garlic and Jalapeno may also help for their respective abilities to redirect zombies to better defended lanes, or do extra damage to under-defended lanes.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

* ▲ -25 sun
* ▲ Immune to frost
* ▼ No longer generate heat around himself
* ▼ Slower attack speed: Once per 1.85 - 2s -> Once per 3-3.15s

### Version 1.1.4

* ▲ Fire Rate: 3-3.15s -> 1.85-2s
* ▼ Sun Cost: 125 -> 200
* ▼ Damage: 35 -> 30
* Target audience: General
	+ Developer note: Snapdragon, while effective, ultimately felt unsatisfying to use due to his slow fire rate. As a result, we have reverted both the damage and fire rates to their vanilla counterparts while increasing the sun cost. It’s essentially a different take on the concept of nerfing his potentness in numbers. Instead of being weaker in great numbers but easier to get to those numbers, now it’s more potent in great numbers but harder to get there and maintain it!

## Trivia

* Snapdragon's "Rock n' Roar" costume is based on the T-Rex from *Fossil Fighters*.
	+ It is also Pinnaporaptor's developer costume, one of the artists for the mod.
* Snapdragon is the only non-icy plant that is immune to freezing winds, as well as the only fire plant that doesn't warm nearby plants.