Primal Potato Mine

*For the present day variant, see Potato Mine.*
*For the Plants vs. Zombies Heroes variant, see Primal Potato Mine (PvZH).*

Primal Potato Mines cost more than regular Potato Mines, but they arm more quickly and do damage over a larger area.

## In-game statistics

### Costumes

Primal Potato Mine doesn't consider himself to be primal. As far as he's concerned he's state-of-the-art. And who knows? Maybe he is.

**Primal Potato Mine** is the fifth and final plant obtained in Jurassic Marsh in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. He is the primal version of Potato Mine. He explodes in a 3x3 area, takes 5 seconds to arm himself and deals 2400 damage per shot worth of damage to zombies caught in the explosion, but costs 50 sun instead of 25.

## Origins

Like his modern counterpart, Primal Potato Mine is based on the real life potato, the starchy, tuberous root portion of the plant *Solanum tuberosum*. His name is a combination of "potato" and "land mine", an explosive device concealed under or on the ground designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks.

Unlike Potato Mine's word on the speech bubble, which is "SPUDOW!" when he explodes, Primal Potato Mine's is "SPUD OOP!!", a portmanteau of "spud" and "oop!". However, in the Chinese version, it still says "SPUDOW!" when he explodes.

## Almanac entry

**Primal Potato Mine**

SUN COST: 50

RECHARGE: 25

TOUGHNESS: 300

DAMAGE: 2400

ARMING TIME: 5

AREA: 3x3

FAMILY: Bombard-mint

Primal Potato Mines cost more than regular Potato Mines, but they arm more quickly and do damage over a larger area.

Usage: single use, delayed activation
Range: affects area around it

Primal Potato Mine doesn't consider himself to be primal. As far as he's concerned he's state-of-the-art. And who knows? Maybe he is.

## Upgrades

### Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Primal Potato Mine will instantly arm himself (even if he is not fully armed) and will create two new and fully armed Primal Potato Mines on two random tiles, similar to its modern counterpart's plant food ability.

#### Costumed  (China only)

Primal Potato Mine will now create three fully armed Primal Potato Mines on three random tiles instead of two when given Plant Food.

### Bombard-mint effect

When boosted by Bombard-mint, Primal Potato Mine's arm time will decrease to two seconds (one second starting at level 8), and its DPS is increased to 3200.

### Level upgrades  (China only)

 Combat Training
 Cell Activation
 Fighting Power

## Strategies

Primal Potato Mine is a significantly improved version of its modern counterpart, as its positive attributes can easily outweigh the slightly increased sun cost. Compared to Potato Mine's blast radius, Primal Potato Mine is nine times as large and can cover up to three lanes at once, allowing Primal Potato Mine to control the crowd much more easily as well as destroy obstacles such as tombstones and frozen blocks. In addition, Primal Potato Mine suffers very little from its counterpart's arming time problem, and can be planted one space ahead of the zombies with the help of slowing plants. These factors combined makes Primal Potato Mine a highly useful plant both for offense and defense. Stunion and this plant make a great combo as the Stunion stops the zombies whilst the Primal Potato Mine arms. Primal Potato Mine really shines once it reaches higher levels, in which the increased damage radius will allow one Primal Potato Mine in the middle row to damage zombies in every row.
Primal Potato Mine's Plant Food ability is extremely powerful; it can destroy almost every zombie on the right side of the lawn. Using Tile Turnip is also a viable option, which will allow many waves of zombies to be instantly killed at the cost of only one Plant Food.

In Wild West, Primal Potato Mines can be used to deal with Chicken Wrangler Zombies as their explosion can take out all of the Zombie Chickens when timed perfectly. They can also deal with Pianist Zombies and the crowd of Cowboy Zombies who are switching lanes.

In Far Future, Primal Potato Mines can destroy any mechanized zombies instantly within their damage area. Using this in Terror from Tomorrow levels is recommended for stopping huge waves of mechs. The only zombie to watch out for is Gargantuar Prime as they require 2 hits from the mine to be defeated due to their 4400 health, and Robo-Cone Zombie, who has 2500 health and likewise requires 2 hits (if Primal Potato Mine is only level 1).

Primal Potato Mines are very useful in Frostbite Caves for dealing with Troglobites. This is because of a beneficial glitch associated with it. If a Troglobite pushes a frozen block on the Primal Potato Mine, it will be triggered normally.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, the player can pair it with Thyme Warp to defeat a large horde of zombies if used properly. Plant two Primal Potato Mines on the second and fourth row, then pile up the zombies by using a Thyme Warp. Using this strategy can hugely decrease the amount of zombies present on the lawn, it can even defeat Hair Metal Gargantuars. Using this strategy has no problem in terms of sun cost, as both plants have a cheap cost. The thing to worry about is the recharge time of both plants, as both plants do not have fast recharge. Also, take note not to place the Primal Potato Mines too near or too far from the zombies, as putting them too near may end in them being eaten or prematurely activated and putting them too far may decrease the amount of defeated zombies as some zombies are significantly faster than others.

## Trivia

* Defeating seven zombies with a single Primal Potato Mine will give the player the Bash Potato achievement.
* The duplicates from his Plant Food effect take a moment to arm, during which they can be eaten.
* Its abilities may have been based on the past (but temporary) buff of Potato Mine where it was able to blow up tombstones and surfboards in a 3x3 area around it.
* It (along with Potato Mine) will not be crushed by frozen blocks and arcade machines, but instead act as if they do not exist. This was coded to prevent said objects from crushing said plants.
	+ This can also happen when it is destroyed by the Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur's missiles and lasers.
* Regardless of what stage it was in when defeated, Intensive Carrot will always revive it to its on-planting stage. The same applies for Potato Mine, Pea Pod, Sun-shroom, Strawburst, Escape Root, and Kiwibeast.
* Although not specified to a single stegosaur, the back plates mostly resemble that of a Tuojiangosaurus.
* When thrown away by Excavator Zombie, he instantly arms if grounded.

### Specific to Chinese version (China only)

* In this version, its arming time is slightly slower than in the international version.
* Unlike its modern counterpart, it is able to upgrade to level 4.
	+ Prior to the 2.0.1. update, it could not able to upgrade to level 4.
* He is the only primal plant that cannot upgrade to level 5 and having different sun cost from him in international version.

## See also

* Potato Mine
* Cherry Bomb
* Grapeshot
* Escape Root
* Bombegranate
* Bash Potato

be:Першабытная Бульбяная Міна
es:Patatapum primitiva
ru:Первобытная Картофельная Мина
pl:Primal Potato Mine