Digger Zombie

*For the similar zombie in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, see Engineer.*

This zombie digs to bypass your defenses.

Digger Zombie spends three days a week getting his excavation permits in order.

## *Plants vs. Zombies 2* (Chinese version)

Can dig past the plants and appear directly in the last row.

Digger Zombie spends three days a week getting his excavation permits in order.

**Digger Zombie** is a zombie that digs beneath the yard using his pickaxe, eventually emerging on the left side of the lawn to attack the player's plants from behind. He wears a helmet to protect himself. He pauses for five seconds after resurfacing before proceeding to eat the player's plants. He is not present on Roof levels, as there is no soil to dig through, but does appear on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation 3's Co-op Roof level. Without advance preparation, they have the potential to do devastating damage to lanes of plants. Note that he eats the plants from left to right like Prospector Zombie and zombies carried by pterodactyls. He never makes an attempt to get into the homeowner's house, unless if his pickaxe gets stolen by a Magnet-shroom. He is the 18th zombie encountered in Adventure Mode.

He returns in the Chinese version of *Plants vs. Zombies 2* being encountered in Modern Day. His behavior has slightly changed: instead of digging right away, he walks to the eighth column before digging. His digging speed has increased significantly, now being able to dig to the first column in a split second. He will destroy the plant occupying the first column before resurfacing.

## Almanac entry

### *Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Chinese version)* (China only)

**矿工僵尸 (Digger Zombie)**

TOUGHNESS: Machined

SPEED: Basic

可以从最后一排出现直接挖掉植物

矿工僵尸每周都要花三天的时间来等候挖地许可。

Can dig past the plants and appear directly in the last row.

## Overview

The Digger Zombie absorbs 300 damage per shot and his appearance changes upon absorbing 40, 80 and 100, when the hard hat is destroyed, and 200 damage per shot before dying after 300 damage per shot. He will dig under your defenses, and eat them from the back. If he encounters an armed Potato Mine while digging underground, it will be triggered and will blow him up. If Magnet-Shroom steals his picaxe, he stops in confusion for a second, before popping out of the ground and becoming a zombie that attacks as typical zombies.

In the Chinese version of *Plants vs. Zombies 2*, he absorbs 490 damage per shot. He loses his arm after abosrbing 245 and dies at 490 damage per shot.

## Encounters

* Adventure Mode: 4-6, 4-7, 4-10
* Puzzle Mode: Can You Dig It?, Three Hit Wonder, All your brainz r belong to us, I, Zombie Endless, Last Stand: Fog, Last Stand Endless
* Survival Mode: Survival: Fog, all Survival (Hard) and Survival (Endless) levels (except Roof)
* Co-op Mode: Co-op Roof, all Co-op Hard levels (except Co-op Hard Roof), Co-op Endless
* Others: Versus Mode

## Strategies

### Specific to *Plants vs. Zombies*

You can use Magnet-shrooms to steal the zombie's pickaxe so he cannot dig any further. When a Magnet-shroom steals his pickaxe, the Digger Zombie will pause, a question mark will appear over his head, and he will surface and advance as usual. However, this is not a valid strategy against him if you are solely picking a weapon against him, especially in Survival: (Hard), as there is a possibility of him bypassing as the Magnet-shroom recharges, and he has the chance to cause him to eat your brains if he steals his pickaxe when it transverses behind your main attacking forces. Also, try using Potato Mines, as they explode if the Digger Zombie digs underneath them. However, make sure they are armed or else they will be eaten. Alternately, place Gloom-shrooms or Spikerocks at the back of the lawn or use Split Peas, Starfruits, and/or Cattails to kill it if he reaches to the left side of the lawn. You can also use Pumpkins on your back column, allowing your other plants more time to kill him. Instant kills, especially the Jalapeno, are good in emergencies. A Magnet-shroom that has just refreshed may snatch the Digger Zombie's mining pick while he is in the middle of your Plants, forcing him out of the ground in an inconvenient location. Before you have the Pumpkin, you may want to put Wall-nuts at the back. Having a Pumpkin, Ice-shroom, or Jalapeno available can counter this situation. In Survival: Endless or similar levels that include many Digger Zombies, the Gloom-shroom (you can use only two to save space for other plants) or Spikerock setups are the best to take care of them, because your Magnet-shrooms, Split Peas, Cattails, and/or Starfruits will not be able to keep up, making them almost useless and creating a necessity to remove them, and saving space. Note that explosive Instants can kill Digger Zombies while they are mining, so Doom-shrooms make very short work of them due to the large area, although other instant kills like the Squash, do not work while they are underground. However, the easiest (but slowest) way to take care of them is to use Potato Mines, due to them exploding as soon as a Digger Zombie goes beneath an armed one, and how they can be set up in advance. Also, if a Chomper is planted on the square one emerges from, he can eat him.

#### I, Zombie

In I, Zombie, you can use this zombie to destroy lanes that have no offensive plants that attack other lanes or backwards (Threepeater, Starfruit, Split Pea), although inconvenient, they can still be used in these rows. Rows with Squashes, Magnet-shrooms, or Potato Mines are effectively impervious. They can survive a Starfruit in column two from the left or a Split Pea in the first column from the left. It is especially useful in I Zombie, Endless.

A player can send a Digger Zombie to distract a Magnet-shroom. Then, after a few seconds, they can send another Digger Zombie and make sure that the pickaxe will be absorbed by the Magnet-shroom. That is a good way to make a Digger Zombie dig under the obstacle and eat the brain.

### Specific to *Plants vs. Zombies 2* (China only)

Do not let him dig his way to the first column, for he will deplete your last defenses much faster than in the first game. In order to prevent it from getting that far, kill him before he begins digging. Planting defensive plants in the leftmost lane is completely useless. However, he still has the same weaknesses as originally.

## Trivia

### Specific to *Plants vs. Zombies*

* Digger Zombie can lose either his left or right arm, depending on which way he is going. Also, when Digger Zombie is not facing the lawn, his left leg is twisted and has a shoe.
* While digging, Digger Zombie is the fastest zombie in the game, with the exception of a Dolphin Rider Zombie that still has his dolphin. But, after finishing the digging, he is the second-slowest zombie in the game behind the Trash Can Zombie.
* Digger Zombie's health is on the low end of the zombies with medium toughness, with Catapult Zombie's health being at the high end.
* There is a similar zombie called Prospector Zombie in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. Both can go to the left side of the lawn then walk to the right side.
	+ The same applies to zombies dragged by pterodactyls in Jurassic Marsh.
* In the Nintendo DS version of *Plants vs. Zombies*, Digger Zombie has an unusual hitbox, as when he stands on a Spikeweed he does not receive damage until near the edge when eating a plant.
* Even after Digger Zombie surfaces, a Magnet-shroom can still steal his pickaxe.
* Digger Zombie does not make a zombie's disgusted face when biting a Garlic; instead, a zombie's disgusted sound is heard while the Digger Zombie changes lanes.
* Digger Zombie's hard hat is available in the Xbox Live Marketplace as a hat for one's avatar. It costs 160 Microsoft Points.
* Digger Zombie can eat defensive plants with ladders on them, as the ladders are on the opposite side from him.
* He and Newspaper Zombie are the two zombies that can have a question mark over their head, but in the mini-game Zombie Trap, if a zombie attracted to a brain gets too far away from the brain, the zombie will have a question mark on the zombie's head and walk towards the house.
* Digger Zombie, Snorkel Zombie, and Balloon Zombie are the only zombies that lack a shoe. This, however, excludes Zombie Yeti, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, and Imp (which do not wear shoes). This is also assuming Dr. Zomboss wears both shoes, as his feet are not visible.
* When Digger Zombie dies while leaving the house, his head will fall off facing the opposite direction. This also happens to Zombie Yeti when it is running away.
* His helmet's light does not work on level 4-10, as the level itself is supposed to be dark.
* Even while underground, Digger Zombie will still scare Scaredy-shroom.
* This is the only Almanac zombie that does not appear in any mini-game nor canceled mini-games.
* In I, Zombie, Digger Zombie first appears in Can You Dig It?.
* A bug in the Nintendo DS version of *Plants vs. Zombies* is that if a plant is on the left-most block on the lawn and a Digger Zombie (facing the right) eats the plant, the Digger Zombie will walk towards the right but still eat the plant and make the eating noise. This is the only way to let a zombie walk and eat a plant at the same time.
* Digger Zombie does not appear on the roof, because it is impossible to dig through the panels. The other zombies that do not appear on the roof are Dancing Zombie, Backup Dancer, Ducky Tube Zombie and his variants, Dolphin Rider Zombie, Snorkel Zombie, and Zombie Bobsled Team. Despite this, he appears in Co-op Roof for an unknown reason.
* However, in Zombie Trap, the player can make zombies face to the right if the player drags the brain behind them.
* If timed correctly, the player can make a Digger Zombie eat a Potato Mine while both of them are underground.
* Catapult Zombie's head looks similar to Digger Zombie's , however Catapult Zombie has an oil stain around his mouth.
* The Digger Zombie likes pink tricycles, as seen in the Zombies on Your Lawn video.
* According to the game's composer Laura Shigihara regarding the cover art for the Plants vs. Zombies Original Soundtrack, Digger Zombie may actually have a softer side to him, considering his like for pink tricycles, implying he actually has no direct hate for the plants.
* Like the in-game Football Zombie, the Digger Zombie's eyes are colored red instead of yellow.

### Specific to *Plants vs. Zombies 2* (China only)

* Similar to Chicken Wrangler Zombie in the international version, in the seed selection screen he appears in his default look, then changes to his digging animation, then reverts back to his default look.
* He is the first zombie from the original game to appear on the Chinese version but not the international version of *Plants vs. Zombies 2*.
* Like All-Star Zombie, his helmet no longer protects him in this game, instead, it is now purely cosmetic.
	+ For some odd reason, in his sprite sheet, you can see his helmet has degrades. This was possibly originally going to be in the game but it was scrapped.
* In his almanac image and box image in the level preview, he has the first game's image instead of the game itself one.

## See also

* Hard hat
* Pickaxe
* Split Pea
* Starfruit
* Magnet-shroom
* Prospector Zombie

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