Holly Barrier

*Holly Barrier deals damage to zombies attacking him, and can launch 3 prickly barrier leaves to knock back and damage zombies.*

## Almanac statistics

### Special

Projectile knocks back, does damage, leaves barrier on empty tiles

### Price from shop

20,000  (10 copies of seed packets)

**Holly Barrier would like to advise folks not to eat his berries. "It's rude to eat someone's berries without asking," he says. "In addition, they are highly toxic."**

**Holly Barrier** is the event seedium of Cheerful Return in *Alternate UniverZ*. When tapped, he enters an armed state; upon tapping another tile he launches a holly berry at it (tapping outside the board or on his own tile cancels this state). The berry deals impact damage and knocks back zombies around 1.5 tiles. If the tile isn't already occupied with a plant, a wall-like leaf barrier is left behind, damaging zombies that eat it similarly to Endurian; they are also tall enough to stop Jetpack Zombies. Instead of having to reload between each shot like other manual-aim plants, he immediately has three berries that can't be reloaded unless Plant Food is used on him.

Holly Barrier can be unlocked through its seed packets, which are obtained through beating Cheerful Return and completing world quests, or purchasing directly from the store.

## Almanac entry

* Normal
* Pro

**Holly Barrier**

SUN COST: 375

RECHARGE: 30

TOUGHNESS: 900

MELEE DPS: 80

PROJECTILE DAMAGE: 560

LEAF TOUGHNESS: 600

LEAF MELEE DPS: 40

AREA: 3x1

Holly Barrier deals damage to zombies attacking him, and can launch 3 prickly barrier leaves to knock back and damage zombies.
Usage: tap to arm, tap on target tile to fire
Weakness: leaves cannot be revived by Intensive Carrot
Pro Status: -25 sun. +300 plant & leaf toughness, doesn't work at nighttime

Holly Barrier would like to advise folks not to eat his berries. "It's rude to eat someone's berries without asking," he says. "In addition, they are highly toxic."

**Holly Barrier**

SUN COST: 350

RECHARGE: 30

TOUGHNESS: 1200

MELEE DPS: 80

PROJECTILE DAMAGE: 560

LEAF TOUGHNESS: 900

LEAF MELEE DPS: 40

AREA: 3x1

Holly Barrier deals damage to zombies attacking him, and can launch 3 prickly barrier leaves to knock back and damage zombies.
Usage: tap to arm, tap on target tile to fire
Weakness: leaves cannot be revived by Intensive Carrot
Pro Status: -25 sun. +300 plant & leaf toughness, doesn't work at nighttime

Holly Barrier would like to advise folks not to eat his berries. "It's rude to eat someone's berries without asking," he says. "In addition, they are highly toxic."

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Holly Barrier will regain all lost berries, and will launch four berries on random tiles. If they land on a tile without an obstacle, the spiky leaf will have metallic spikes attached to it, making it do more damage to zombies and giving it more health. And finally, it will heal to full health.

## Costumes

* Current
* Pre 1.5

## Strategies

Although Holly Barrier doesn't look great at first glance, Holly Barrier has a lot of hidden potential that can make the plant incredibly devastating. The main proponent of this is the fact that all of Holly Barrier's missiles knock back zombies around them in a 1x3 area when they land, in addition to leaving a decent HP wall that can also defend itself. Because of this, Holly Barrier is incredibly efficient at stalling zombies early in the game, and potentially stalling more dangerous groups of zombies or Gargantuars, later in the game. Another usages it has is to snipe off problematic low hp zombies like Breakdancer Zombie or Sunshine Charmer before they can do anything.

Due to Holly Barrier's minuscule offensive potential however, it should not be used in the same way as a Boom Balloon Flower, rather it should be used entirely on the merits of its utility and synergies. Due to the nature of Holly Barrier and its missiles, Holly Barrier can also function similarly to Endurian, but be weary that sometimes the knock back utility of its missiles might be a better option to utilize. Thanks to being a defensive plant, Wall-nut First Aid will work on Holly Barrier, allowing you to instantly replenish all of the leaves on the plant. The melee damage of both Holly Barrier and its leaves are quite high, even surpassing Endurian but with low hp as a trade off, you can combine them with Pumpkin for a weird but more effective Endurian.

The missiles this plant fires also behave exactly like Tall-nut, halting any and all flying zombies such as the Zombie Bull Riders thrown by Zombie Bulls, Jetpack Zombies, Bug Zombies, and other flying zombies. Interestingly though, despite any visual degradation of the launched barriers, they will continue to block flying zombies until completely eaten. The main plant that launches the barriers does NOT possess this one trait of height and will only block grounded zombies.

Holly Barrier can be used to deal with Chicken Wrangler Zombies and Weasel Hoarders thanks to the barrier's high damage. If placed correctly, Holly Barrier can separate the Barrel Roller Zombie from its barrel, preventing the zombie from pushing it any further.

Due to the nature of Holly Barrier, it is best not to use it in levels where you can't have more than a certain number of plants, or in levels where you can't lose plants. It also doesn't perform quite as well in Last Stand levels due to the limited amount of sun available.

The biggest weakness of Holly Barrier is that it can be difficult to use properly, due to the decision making needed, as well as knowledge of nuanced mechanics. Holly Barrier is also often a mediocre choice in Frostbite Caves due to the fact that both he and his missiles take space on the lawn, and since they are not immune to frost, they can often limit the space that you have to plant by becoming encased by frozen blocks, a problem that can become exacerbated if Troglobites are in the level.

## Balance Changes

### Version 1.6

* Sun cost (Pro Status): 375 > 350
* Leaf toughness (Pro Status): 900 > 1200
* Leaf melee damage (Pro Status): 60 > 40

### Version 1.6.2

* Pro status leaf HP: 1200 -> 900
* Pro status self HP: 900 -> 1200
	+ Dev Note: A funny way of putting it: we felt like the leaves were too absurd, and the body wasn't absurd enough.