Pianist Zombie

*For the form in Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars, see Pianist Zombie (PvZ: AS)*

His rolling piano crushes plants while his music causes dancing zombies to switch lanes.

## Almanac statistics

### Special

Crushes plants with his piano and makes Cowboy Zombies change lanes.

## In-game statistics

### Weakness

   (Spawns Spikerocks)
 (when hiding)

### First seen

Wild West - Day 3

Pianist Zombie only knows two songs, and they're both groaners.

**Pianist Zombie** is the sixth zombie found in Wild West. He rolls over plants, killing most instantly (with a few exceptions such as Spikerock and Wall-nut) and causes all Cowboy Zombies, Conehead Cowboys, Buckethead Cowboys, and Cart-Head Zombies on the screen to dance and change lanes every few seconds. He instantly dies if he encounters a Spikeweed, Spikerock, Cactus (when in the ground) or Bamboo-shoot.

## Almanac entry

**Pianist Zombie**

TOUGHNESS: Hardened

SPEED: Creeper

His rolling piano crushes plants while his music causes dancing zombies to switch lanes.

Damage: crushes plants with piano
Special: causes cowboy zombies to switch lanes

Pianist Zombie only knows two songs, and they're both groaners.

## Overview

Pianist Zombie absorbs 840 damage per shot and his appearance changes upon absorbing 420 damage per shot before dying at 840 damage per shot. When he enters the lawn, he starts playing music, causing every Cowboy Zombie excluding Flag Cowboy Zombie and Cowboy Rally Zombie to dance until it dies.

The music is played as follows:

## Encounters

Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Days 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, Big Bad Butte, "Electrical Boogaloo" Epic Quest - Step 7

Big Wave Beach: Piñata Party

Frostbite Caves: Piñata Party

Modern Day: Days 3, 11, 24, 26, 32, and Highway to the Danger Room (portal only)

## Strategies

Despite his slow speed, his ability to instantly destroy plants in his way and allow other Cowboy Zombies to swap lanes with its music can cause this zombie to become very problematic. Try to destroy the Pianist Zombie as fast as possible or eliminate as many Cowboy Zombies as you can before they swap lanes on the screen. Otherwise, you will have a hard time if the other zombies shift to eat your plants you have placed (Lightning Reed, Pea Pod, and others). A Pea Pod with five heads will quickly kill him. Banana Launcher, Strawburst's large berry or Missile Toe can destroy it in one shot. Wall-nuts, Tall-nuts, Sweet Potatoes, or Endurians cannot stop him, as his piano crushes your plants. You can delay a Pianist Zombie with Iceberg Lettuce, Stunion, or butter from Kernel-pult to force the zombies to stop dancing. A good choice to deal with him is to use any instant kill. Bowling Bulbs can eliminate many zombies at a time with each bulb. Planting a Spikeweed or Spikerock on the tile his piano is on will also instantly kill him, since he is a rolling zombie. Long-ranged plants that splash damage or attack multiple zombies such as Coconut Cannon, Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Laser Bean, Fume-shroom or Electric Peashooter may be required to kill a group of them. You could plant a Guacodile on the lane where the Pianist Zombie is so that the zombie who shifted where the plant is will trigger its rush attack, quickly eliminating the Pianist Zombie. Do not use plants such as Cabbage-pult, Citron, Spore-shroom, Blooming Heart, Electric Blueberry, Primal Peashooter or Nightshade because if you do not kill the Pianist Zombie, these plants will have hard time shooting at him as the other Cowboy Zombies continue shifting because of their low fire rate. In addition, they do not splash damage and can only kill one zombie at a time. Bonk Choys, Snapdragons, Puff-shrooms and Phat Beets should also be avoided as their minimal range can cause shifting zombies to eat them up quickly without support from other long-ranged plants. Chompers and Toadstools are also useless as they cannot instantly devour the Pianist Zombie while other zombies will quickly overwhelm them. Avoid using Garlic against the zombies as they are already switching lanes under the Pianist Zombie's music and can shift back automatically over a certain amount of time, rendering its ability useless.

## Trivia

* In the 2.4.1 update, a phrase in his entry was changed from "summons cowboy zombies who switch lanes" to "causes cowboy zombies to switch lanes."
	+ This was likely done to prevent confusion because he does not spawn zombies on his own.
* Pianist Zombie's Almanac entry states that he only knows two songs, and they're both a bore. This may be referring to the regular and Feastivus music he plays (two songs) as they are 10 seconds of music looped over and over (a bore).
* Even though the projectiles hit the piano, the zombie will still lose his arm and head.
* Before the 1.7 update, there was a glitch that when he appeared, he would not play music and the normal Wild West background music would be gone. When defeated, the Wild West background music would come back.
* Whenever at least one is alive and onscreen, his piano song will replace the stage's current music.
* When he is slowed by Sap-fling, Stallia, or any freezing plants, his animation will slow down, but the music will continue at normal speed. This also happens with Boombox Zombie.
	+ However, when he is shrunken by Shrinking Violet, his music will be played faster, in a higher pitch.
* When he is bounced by a Spring Bean, Chard Guard, or any other plant with a knock-back ability, not only his piano is bounced, but both he and his chair is bounced too, despite the fact the piano and the chair are separated.
* If a Primal Peashooter knocks him back, his music is reset.
* Before the 2.1 update, he could be defeated by the Chili Bean, because the crushing mechanic is basically a high damage attack, and therefore is still counted as a bite.
* When killed by any plant deals electric damage such as Lightning Reed, he dies by electrocution just as a normal zombie does, but the piano disappears.
	+ This also occurs when he is killed by either Cherry Bomb or Jalapeno. From the 1.9 update onward, the piano crumbles while the zombie gets burned.
* He is one of the six zombies to get a new Christmas look for the *5 Days of Feastivus*, along with Swashbuckler Zombie, Camel Zombies, Poncho Zombie, Gargantuar, and Imp.
	+ His costume for Feastivus resembles a green Santa Claus.
	+ He also plays Christmas music when he appeared in the Feastivus event.
* He is referred to as "Piano Zombie" in the credits and in the Travel Log.
* While the Almanac states his toughness is Hardened, his toughness is actually Dense because he only absorbs 840 damage per shot while Zombie King absorbs 1000 damage per shot.
* After an update, starting any level with Pianist Zombies after choosing plants will result in the sound of his piano being destroyed can be heard once the level starts.
* When hypnotized by Caulipower he will keep playing his music and zombies will keep dancing.
* He can crush a plant directly behind a slider tile he encounters. This can be observed in Arena such as in Electric Currant's Garden Party Tournament.

ru:Зомби-пианист