Pea-nut

*Pea-nuts can shoot peas and block zombies.*

**Pea-nut knows that some folks have an aversion to him. He tries to be sensitive to their concerns and give them the space they need. Still, he can't help but miss the good old days - back when he was the most popular nut around.**

**Pea-nut** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the fourth plant obtained in Steam Ages. He is unlocked after beating Steam Ages - Day 18.

Pea-nut is an enhanced combination of Peashooter and Wall-nut, firing a pea every 1.1-1.2 seconds while delaying zombies with a tougher, bite-absorbing shell. However, if Pea-nut suffers from too much damage and reaches 50% health, his top head will be bitten off, halving his firing rate.

## Almanac entry

**Pea-nut**

Pea-nuts can shoot peas and block zombies.

Pea-nut knows that some folks have an aversion to him. He tries to be sensitive to their concerns and give them the space they need. Still, he can't help but miss the good old days - back when he was the most popular nut around.

## Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Pea-nut will act similarly to both Peashooter and Wall-nut: he will shoot 60 peas rapidly, restore his health (and his top head if applicable), and gain a metal Viking helmet that can absorb up to 5000 damage or a smash from a Gargantuar.

## Strategies

Pea-nut's combination of traits make for a particularly unusual plant. His high health for surviving in close quarter combat contrasts with peas for firing at a range, while his relatively high cost and fast recharge versus other wall plants make it quick, but expensive to protect other plants. And yet, he remains more efficient than some of his closest competitors. As a result, his range of practical applications become much different to other plants on offer.

The most obvious use of Pea-nut is as a defensive wall, where his moderately fast recharge lets him quickly build a front line to protect other plants, helpful for quick maintenance in fast-paced levels. However, this demands competent sun production and use of shoveling upgrades to keep up with the cost. Being a wall also goes at odds with his ranged attacks: Rather than needing to be in melee range to deal damage, akin to wall plants like Endurian and Murkadamia Nut, Pea-nut gets no offensive benefits and can even lose damage once enough damage is sustained. That being said, Pea-nut's efficiency arguably trumps that of Primal Wall-nut; the latter plant can be planted even more often but has less health and no offensive contributions at all, automatically making the former plant much more cost efficient.

Conversely, Pea-nut may also be used as a ranged, offensive plant. Thanks to his uniquely high health, he can be planted along areas where zombies tend to land in ambushes: Imps thrown by Gargantuars, zombies emerging from sewers and zombies dragged in by Pterodactyls, for example. Pea-nut can withstand such ambushes for much longer than standard, non-defensive plants (even more than the similarly purposed Primal Sunflower), buying ample time to answer those zombies with other plants. When Pea-nut becomes damaged enough, he can be refunded through shoveling upgrades for cheap maintenance.

Because of his fast recharge, it is possible to use Pea-nut for both purposes instead of just one; holding the front line while simultaneously blocking ambushing zombies. Pea-nuts can also be used as a form of sun dump for as long as the level doesn't send zombies to instantly destroy them, repeatedly planting Pea-nuts along the front line for bonus sources of damage and health. This flexibility makes him especially useful in worlds like Jurassic Marsh and his home world. Keep in mind that doing so will increase the strain in keeping each individual Pea-nut maintained, due to simply having more of them on the lawn at once.

However, Pea-nut's offensive contributions are mediocre - at most, Torchwood can be used to set peas on fire for more respectable damage. Because of this, Pumpkin may in some cases be more useful for handling zombies ambushes. Being a vine plant, Pumpkin can be used to protect other plants, allowing the health of a Wall-nut to be combined with any plant, instead of some basic pea damage. That being said, due to Pumpkin's much less efficient sun cost, lesser health pool and much slower recharge, Pea-nut remains a much more flexible option in handling zombies where other offensive plants would get quickly devoured.

## Balance changes

### Version 1.2

* Changed from a Premium plant to a Steam Ages plant
* ▲ Fire Rate: 1.30166/1.333 -> 1.1/1.2
* ▲ HP: 4,000 -> 5,000
* ▲ Armor HP: 4,000 -> 5,000
	+ Not listed in the changelogs
	+ Developer note: Pea-nut needed some extra flavor to survive the intensity of the Steam Ages, so now he's back and better than ever. Give him a shot, and tell him "hi" when you unlock him. hi peanut

## Trivia

* Pea-nut's "North Hemisphere and Warm Equator" costume is one of the winners of the Feastivus Costume Contest, submitted by JJAM#9968, slightly redrawn to fit the game's art style.