Kernel-pult

*Kernel-pults fling corn kernels and butter at zombies.*

**While working as an usher at the local movieplex, he saw "Fried Green Tomatoes" and found his higher calling. He packed up his husks, his kernels, his butter, and enlisted.**

**Kernel-pult** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the first plant obtained in Pirate Seas. He is unlocked after beating Pirate Seas - Day 1.

While Kernel-pult normally lobs kernels that deal 20 damage at an equal rate to Cabbage-pult, he has a 25% chance to fire a butter projectile that deals 40 damage to his target, stunning it for 10 seconds.

However, the zombies from the Food Fight Holiday have a 75% resistance to butter, meaning that they will only be held in place for 2.5 seconds.

Being a catapult, his projectiles can bypass grid items like tombstones, presents or octopi as well as certain types of shields employed by the zombies and submerged Snorkel Zombies in Big Wave Beach.

## Almanac entry

**Kernel-pult**

Kernel-pults fling corn kernels and butter at zombies.

Damage Details: light(kernel), normal(butter)

Special: butter immobilizes zombies

While working as an usher at the local movieplex, he saw "Fried Green Tomatoes" and found his higher calling. He packed up his husks, his kernels, his butter, and enlisted.

## Plant Food effect

When fed Plant Food, Kernel-pult hurls butter that hits every zombie and obstacle on-screen, dealing 40 damage and paralyzing them for 10 seconds.

## Strategies

Kernel-pult's ability to butter and stun a majority of zombie types makes for a curiously effective plant. While his cheapness leads to weak damage and an inability to deal with groups, the butter makes it feasible to take on almost any zombie in a 1v1, even up to a Gargantuar. Because of this, he can work quite well as an early game attacker, with attacks able to take down lower health targets, while stalling tougher zombies for long enough to build a stronger defense.

However, utilising Kernel-pult's butter also involves some luck. As each attack has a 25% chance of throwing butter, there may sometimes be dry spells where an individual Kernel-pult refuses to throw butter, nullifying the benefits of single target stun. Conversely, there may be periods where several attacks throw butter, allowing for some bonus damage and longer stun uptime on a given target. Using Kernel-pult in numbers will help to both reduce the likelihood of the former issue and increase the frequency of the latter, by increasing the overall odds of butter being thrown with each cycle of attack. Keep in mind that doing so may hamper the benefits of Kernel-pult's cheapness - unless using shoveling upgrades, where three upgrades can reduce the overall cost of each planting to a mere 25 sun.

While Kernel-pult is usually low in power, certain flying zombies can be quickly defeated by butter. Seagull Zombie and Zombie Parrot will be instantly destroyed, while Bug Zombie will instantly drop its passenger. Kernel-pult's Plant Food effect can also prove to be useful, stunning the whole board for a few seconds. While not as powerful as Iceberg Lettuce's longer freeze time or Stallia's very lengthy stall effect, the butter can help buy some time to defeat zombies and avoid being overrun, while clearing the board of the aforementioned zombies.

Like any lobbed plant, Kernel-pult's attacks will be defied by certain zombies. Shield Zombie and Parasol Zombie can block incoming projectiles, while Jester Zombie will reflect projectiles to hit plants. Fast targets such as Zombie Chickens or charging All-Star Zombies can easily throw off Kernel-pult's aim with a sudden change in speed. Food Fight zombies have direct resistance to butter, reducing the stun effect to a minimum. Kernel-pult also struggles against denser hordes, owing to his focus on single target buttering. Multi-hit and area-of-effect plants such as Bloomerang and Laser Bean can be used to help clear out low health zombies, allowing Kernel-pult to focus on buttering tougher targets.

## Balance changes

### Version 1.1.4

* Fire Rate: 2.85-3s -> 2.75-2.9s
* Butter Stun Duration: 8s -> 10s
* Target audience: General
	+ Developer note: Kernel-Pult was in a similar situation to Cabbage-Pult, being somewhat undertuned and rarely ever picked. His butter RNG discouraged many people from using the plant, but altering that chance would stray away from his vanilla identity too much. Ultimately, we settled with increasing the stun duration, compensating low odds with a powerful effect! A similar fire rate buff to Cabbage-Pult should also make his stunning a tad more frequent. These changes aim to help him keep up better with other stalling plants such as Fanilla.

## Trivia

* Despite being a variant of Seagull Zombie, Assault Dove Zombie cannot be instantly destroyed by butter, and will instead be stunned like normal.
* Kernel-pult's "Maize Warden" costume is one of the Harvest Festival Costume Contest winners, submitted by coney4526 and redrawn to fit the game's art style.