Punk Zombie

Moshes plants back a space when his jam is playing.

Punk Zombie's piercings represent his individuality and his belief in personal freedom, or maybe just that he fell face-first into a sewing machine.

*Not to be confused with Skunk Punk.*
**Punk Zombie** is the fifth zombie encountered in Neon Mixtape Tour in *Plants vs. Zombies 2* (the sixth in the Chinese version). He is the first zombie encountered that corresponds to a specific jam (the second in the Chinese version). If he encounters a plant during the punk jam, he will kick it back to the nearest empty tile to the left, or when no empty tiles are available, off the lawn, similarly to Mecha-Football Zombie. He can be killed instantly by Magnet-shroom, which attracts his head, due to the fact that his head is full of metal.

## Appearance

Punk Zombie has a large thick pink mohawk with a blue streak filling in a quarter near the back. A large piercing is somehow attached to the top of the mohawk. His piercings are placed on one where his ear should be (left) and another on the right side of his forehead. He has one clipped through his nostrils, quite like a bull, and one more on the right side of his lower lip. Next to that is a silver ball on his chin.

He wears a plain red shirt covered by a black leather coat with what appears to be an imprint of a skull on the back. On his shoulder(s) is three spikes and under, on the rest of the sleeves are three bolts spread down evenly. He wears a black collar with the same bolts and resembles the collar of the Zombot from the first game. At the end of the coat is what appears to be a giant silver paperclip. The pants he wears are maroon with an orange check pattern.

His boots are black with the front portion metal with four large silver spikes at the tips. He also has a pair of fingerless motorbike gloves.

## Almanac entry

**Punk Zombie**

TOUGHNESS: Solid

SPEED: Hungry

Moshes plants back a space when his jam is playing.

Weakness: Magnet Shrooms pull off his head

Punk Zombie's piercings represent his individuality and his belief in personal freedom, or maybe just that he fell face-first into a sewing machine.

## Overview

Punk Zombie absorbs 250 damage per shot and his appearance changes upon absorbing 125 damage per shot when his arm falls off, before dying.

## Encounters

Neon Mixtape Tour: Days 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, Greatest Hits, "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 2 and "Electrical Boogaloo" Epic Quest - Step 3

Modern Day: Days 9, 20, 25, 34, 43 and "Electrical Boogaloo" Epic Quest - Step 1

## Strategies

Like all other special-ability zombies in Neon Mixtape Tour, Punk Zombie is only a problem during his jam. Combining the increased speed of zombies and incoming Neon Bucketheads or Hair Metal Gargantuars protecting him, Punk Zombie can destroy defenses with ease.

An easy way to defeat him is to use Magnet-shroom to take his head and kill him instantly. This action requires a relatively small recharge time for Magnet-shroom compared to other metallic objects. However, when these zombies come in large hordes, multiple Magnet-shrooms or the use of Plant Food may be needed. As a bonus, using Magnet-shroom can also give you an achievement, Head Banger . If you don't have Magnet-shroom available, you can use whatever strategy you used against Mecha-Football Zombie, except that he cannot be stunned by an E.M. Peach. Plants such as Spikerock and Celery Stalker can help to defeat him, as he cannot push Spikerocks or Celery Stalker (when hiding).

Laser Bean and Fume-shroom are useful for killing multiple Punk Zombies in groups, as well as other zombies. It is not recommended to use Laser Bean and Fume-shroom when a Glitter Zombie is nearby though. Guacodile is useful against this zombie, given that it pushes Guacodile, which will then rush and heavily damage all of the zombies in the row, which will kill the Punk Zombie and other weaker zombies. Primal Peashooters are also useful against this zombie. Due to their ability to push zombies backwards, they can keep a single Punk Zombie away from your other plants, as well as Glitter Zombies and MC Zom-Bs. However, be careful when Arcade Zombie's arcade machines are nearby, as the peas will hit the arcade machine, acting like a barrier.Spore-shrooms and Witch Hazels are a good choice as Punk Zombie can only move one plant at a time, unlike Mecha-Football Zombie or Ankylosaurus. The newly created Spore-shrooms and Puff-shrooms can serve a distraction to him as he will waste time having to target them first.

Magnifying Grass is also a great way of effortlessly dealing with Punk Zombies as Punk Zombie has low health and his speed during his jam is increased more than other zombies, allowing Magnifying Grass to shoot him without having to shoot through other zombies. Additionally, Magnifying Grass can kill Punk Zombie with only one shot and its Plant Food ability can kill multiple Punk Zombies easily. However, always be aware of your sun amount. A Pea Pod with 5 heads is a good idea as they can easily destroy a Punk Zombie with 3 shots.

Infi-nut's force field is very useful to stop several Punk Zombies as they kick the force field instead of the actual plant behind it. However, this ability should not be used when the pop or rap jam is playing, due to Glitter Zombie or MC Zom-B's abilities, or when Hair Metal Gargantuars will weaken the force field.

Escape Root is an effective way if you have another plant close to the Punk Zombie and you don't want him to push it further as the plant will be protected when swapped. In addition, the Escape Root cannot be pushed and will convert to an explosive plant instead which will instantly destroy him and other zombies, depending on the explosive plant summoned.

Punk Zombies are surprisingly useful in levels such as Save Our Seeds. Kicking the endangered plant will move it back from harm from any other zombie. However, the player still needs to kill the Punk Zombie before he completely kicks the endangered plant out of the lawn.

## Trivia

* When his head is attracted by a Magnet-shroom, the player will earn the Head Banger achievement.
* His head is absorbed by Magnet-shroom in much less time than other metallic objects.
	+ His head, unlike other metallic objects, goes around the Magnet-shroom and disappears instead of getting attracted to the center of the plant and shrinking until it disappears.
* His head cannot be shot to zombies with Magnet-shroom's Plant Food ability.
* He will lose an arm if the Magnet-shroom pulls his head off.
* A glitch found in the game is that while being brought back to the last column by Thyme Warp, Magnet-shroom can still take away Punk Zombie's head. This will result in a headless Punk Zombie with full health (due to Thyme Warp's healing) which acts like a normal Punk Zombie, but immune to Magnet-shrooms.
* The only time he can eat a plant while the punk jam is playing is when he encounters a Grave Buster. He will not push the Grave Buster for it cannot be on a blank tile or on another Tombstone.
	+ This can only occur in Modern Day - Day 9, as it is the only level with both Punk Zombies and Tombstones.
* He is voiced by Patrick Gunn according to the credits.
* In Blastberry Vine's Tournament, he can kick plants onto graves.

## See also

* Head Banger

ru:Зомби-панк
fr:Zompunk