Winter Melon

*Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.*

**You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here", "Ice Bingo" and "Surfin' Swedes".**

**Winter Melon** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the seventh plant obtained in Wild West. He is unlocked at Wild West - Day 24.

Winter Melon is an ice-based version of Melon-pult, lobbing frozen melons at zombies in his lane every 4 - 4.05 seconds, which do splash damage and chill zombies in a 3x3 area.

## Almanac entry

**Winter Melon**

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Firing Speed: 1/2x

You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here", "Ice Bingo" and "Surfin' Swedes".

## Plant Food effect

When Winter Melon is fed Plant Food, he will turn into a mortar and launch giant frozen melons at all zombies and obstacles on the lawn, with each dealing 200 direct damage, and 20 splash damage in a 3x3 area. The chill effect will also be applied to every hit enemies (both by direct and splash damage).

## Strategies

Under normal circumstances, Winter Melon is the most expensive plant in the game. In return, his combination of area damage and slowdown make for a powerful plant that can greatly keep the zombie horde at bay. Combined with his slow recharge, Winter Melon will struggle to find use in shorter levels, but will greatly excel at handling the horde in longer levels, especially in Endless Zones.

Like any lobbed plant, though, certain zombies can counter Winter Melon's attacks, rendering him weaker or useless. Parasol Zombie can bounce melons away, Jester Zombie will chuck melons back at your plants and Shield Zombie can absorb whole melons via force field, while speedy targets like Zombie Chicken can throw off Winter Melon's aim. So, in levels with these zombies, including their respective Endless Zones, it is imperative that counter-picks such as Fanilla and Electric Peashooter are brought along.

With Winter Melon's high cost and zombie counters, it may be more attractive to bring other, cheaper stall plants in regular levels. For example, Missile Toe and Cold Snapdragon can also slow large groups, while having attacks that bypass typical zombie abilities. Sap-fling and Snow Pea, on the other hand, can slow down the front-most zombies of the horde for a very low cost, with Sap-fling in particular being effective against chill-resistant Heroes and Feastivus zombies.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

#### Listed changes

* ▲ +10 damage
* ▲ +10 splash damage
* ▼ Slower attack speed: Once per 2.85-3s -> Once per 4.5-4.55s
* ▼ Less chill uptime: 10s -> 3.8s

#### Actual changes

* Damage is unchanged
* ▲ +10 splash damage
* ▼ Slower attack speed: Once per 2.85-3s -> Once per 4.5-4.55s
* ▼ Less chill uptime: 10s -> 3.8s

### Version 1.1

* ▲ Damage: 80 -> 90
	+ Developer note: Melon-pult and Winter Melon were not correctly using their intended stats as described in Penny's Classroom. We have adjusted their damage values to go along with our intended changes to the plants.

### Version 1.2

* ▲ Fire Rate: 4.5/4.55 -> 4/4.05
* ▼ Splash Damage: 50 -> 45
* ▼ Chill Time: 3.8 -> 3.44
	+ Developer note: Despite the nerfs, it will melt even more hordes!

## Trivia

* Winter Melon's "Cartoon Friend" costume is samie's developer costume, one of the artists for the mod.