Jester Zombie

*For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, see Jester.*

Returns projectiles that are shot at him.

Oh sure, everyone loves to laugh at Jester Zombie's clownish routines. But what no one knows is that he has a Master of Fine Arts from the Chewliard Performing Arts School. Heck, he's been on stage with some of the finest classical theatre companies this side of the lawn. But sometimes you just gotta go where the paycheck is.

**Jester Zombie** is the fifth zombie encountered in Plants vs. Zombies 2’s Dark Ages. He has the ability to deflect physical projectiles from plants, such as peas, plasma balls, bulbs and many others, which allows him to damage plants with them and cause a lot of trouble when not dealt with properly. He is the Dark Ages counterpart of Hammer Zombie or Nunchaku Zombie. In addition while deflecting, he moves at 1.1x of his normal speed and his contact damage will not trigger plants that have effects when eaten, such as Sun Bean

To defeat the Jester Zombie, the player should use area-of-effect plants, instant-kill plants, splash damage plants, plants that utilize non-physical projectiles, etc.

## Origins

    He is based on a jester, an entertainer during medieval and Renaissance times.

## Description

Jester Zombie wears a brown-colored eccentric jester hat with yellow circles serving as tips. The left portion of the eccentric hat is bent downwards, the right one is slightly bent down, and finally the back one upward. The eccentric hat he wears extends up to his neck. His attire presents a simultaneous shift of two colors, blue and yellow to be specific. Jester Zombie is also cross-eyed since the right eye looks at the upper left while the left one looks downward.

The left sleeve of Jester Zombie is colored in blue that extends only up to the left wrist as it is tattered while the right is yellow and is purely intact. The chest portion presents a vertical placing of colors in a simultaneous manner also with two red buttocks attached to the middle portion of it and a red-colored strap is attached to his tummy line.

The pants, much like the sleeves of his torso counterpart also presents the same designing of colors. However, the yellow color is now on the left side and blue on the right. The pants are torn up since the right leg only extends up to his thigh while on his left leg has only the knee portion of it torn up. Finally, the shoes he wears also present the same color with his eccentric hat especially the circular portion that serves as tips.

Jester Zombie is dressed as a chef in the Food Fight parties. He wears a white toque, white double-breasted jacket, and gray-colored checkered pants. He holds a frying pan with brains on it in his right hand and a dish that contains rice, chicken, and vegetables that is ready to serve in his left hand. For his footwear, he simply wears a pair of brown leather shoes.

Jester Zombie is dressed like a birthday clown, complete with a cupcake hat and cake in the Birthdayz event.

Jester Zombie can deflect projectiles shot by these plants:

* Cabbage-pult
* Bloomerang (forward)
* Repeater
* Snow Pea
* Kernel-pult
* Coconut Cannon
* Threepeater
* Split Pea (forward)
* Pea Pod
* Melon-pult
* Winter Melon
* Citron
* Puff-shroom
* Pea-nut
* Magnet-shroom (Plant Food)
* Bowling Bulb
* Homing Thistle
* Guacodile
* Pepper-pult
* Fire Peashooter
* Rotobaga (northeast and southeast)
* Red Stinger
* A.K.E.E.
* Strawburst (small berry)

* Cactus (spike, international version only)
* Spore-shroom
* Grapeshot (grapes)
* Primal Peashooter (international version only)
* Wasabi Whip (level 5 projectile, Chinese version only)
* Nightshade (powered)
* Blooming Heart
* Dusk Lobber
* Apple Mortar
* Shadow Peashooter (unpowered pea)
* Sling Pea
* Goo Peashooter
* Snap Pea (zombie heads)
* Dazey Chain
* Pokra (Plant food effect)
* Pomegunate
* Cattail
* Kinnikannon

## Almanac entry

**Jester Zombie**

TOUGHNESS: Protected

SPEED: Basic

Returns projectiles that are shot at him.

Oh sure, everyone loves to laugh at Jester Zombie's clownish routines. But what no one knows is that he has a Master of Fine Arts from the Chewliard Performing Arts School. Heck, he's been on stage with some of the finest classical theatre companies this side of the lawn. But sometimes you just gotta go where the paycheck is.

## Encounters

### *Plants vs. Zombies 2*

Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Piñata Party

Dark Ages: Nights 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (pre 2.7), 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, Arthur's Challenge, "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 5, "Beghouled Blitz" Epic Quest - Step 2 and Piñata Party

Frostbite Caves: "Electrical Boogaloo" Epic Quest - Step 6

Neon Mixtape Tour: "Epic Quest: Premium Seeds - Zoybean Pod" - Step 3 (portal only)

Modern Day: Days 6, 7, 31, 33, 41, 44, and Highway to the Danger Room (portal only)

Arena: Caulipower's Escalating Tournament, Explode-O-Nut's All-Out Tournament, Electric Peashooter's Warped Tournament, Grapeshot's Double Shot Tournament, Contain-mint's Tournament, Enforce-mint's Tournament, Zoybean Pod's Birthdayz Tournament, Explode-O-Nut's Boosterama Tournament, Electrici-tea's Tournament, Caulipower's Boosterama Tournament, Pumpkin and Friends vs. Zomboss Tournament, Zoybean Pod's Boosterama Tournament, Olive Pit & Friends vs. Zomboss Tournament

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

Wild West: Premium Plant Quest: Squash

Dark Ages: Nights 5, 6, 10, 12, 18, 20, 21, Ultimate Challenge, and Endless Challenge

Lost City: Boss Rush

Modern Day: Days 8, 12, and 26

## Overview

The Jester Zombie absorbs exactly 420 damage per shot. His appearance changes upon absorbing 210 damage per shot before dying at 420 damage per shot.

## Strategies

### Weaknesses

* Plants that can stop deflection completely: Iceberg Lettuce, Chili Bean, Stunion, Solar Tomato, Contain-mint, Dazey Chain, Garlic (only when fed Plant Food or when Jester Zombie is eating it).
* Splash damage from the following (Jester Zombie doesn't deflect their attacks if they're planted in a different row): Coconut Cannon, Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Pepper-pult, Dusk Lobber
* Plants that shoot non-deflectable projectiles: Magnifying Grass, Banana Launcher, Dandelion, Missile Toe, Electric Peashooter, Holly Barrier
* Plants that use area-of-effect attacks: Snapdragon, Lightning Reed, Laser Bean, Fume-shroom, Jack O' Lantern, Cold Snapdragon, Witch Hazel, Caulipower, Kiwibeast, Phat Beet, Ghost Pepper
* Plants that do not shoot projectiles: Bonk Choy, Spikeweed, Spikerock, Hypno-shroom, Chomper, Toadstool, Lava Guava, Endurian, Celery Stalker, Shadow-shroom, Grimrose, Electric Currant, Wasabi Whip, Parsnip, Hot Date, Electric Blueberry, Explode-O-Nut, Zoybean Pod, Electrici-tea, Pokra (but not the slowing drill), Imp Pear
* Plants whose Plant Food can make him turn around: Sweet Potato and Hot Date.
* Plants that can defeat Jester Zombie under certain conditions:
	+ Guacodile (pit will be deflected but will immediately rush when hit by it)
	+ Strawburst (if the berry size is either medium or large)
	+ Cactus (if the plant is hiding or in the Chinese version)
	+ Nightshade (Not powered. Powered if close-up)
	+ Shadow Peashooter (powered, or if the plant is hiding)
	+ Split Pea, Starfruit, Rotobaga (if projectile was shot backwards)
	+ Snap Pea (only when eaten, zombie head shot will be deflected)
* Chinese-exclusive: Radish (if leveled up), Fire Gourd, Bamboo-shoot, Oak Archer, Acidic Citrus, Lotuspot, Rafflesia, Tornacorn, Aspiragus, Saucer Squash, Ampthurium, MC Glory, Primal Rafflesia, Dinonip, Mastercane, Pyro-shroom, Cryo-shroom, Aggro Brocco, Lord Bamboo, Chest-nut, Zorrose, Magic-shroom, Pumpkin Witch, Snowy Cotton, Guerrequila, Monkeyfruit, Dragonfruit, Angel Starfruit, Match Flower, Firebloom Queen, Cob Cannon

### General

Jester Zombie's main weaknesses are area-of-effect attacks from plants like Lightning Reed, Fume-shroom, Laser Bean, and Snapdragon. These types of plants work since they do not have solid projectiles to hit Jester Zombie with. Magnifying Grass' projectiles are not considered solid and can therefore defeat Jester Zombie. Two Spikerocks adjacent to your plants will also defeat the Jester Zombie. Bonk Choys can be used, but keep a Tall-nut or Wall-nut adjacent to it or you will risk the Bonk Choy getting eaten because of its minimal range. If you are having trouble with Jester Zombie because of the lack of area-of-effect attacks, you can use instant kills. Beware, however, when the Jester is spinning, he is immune to Shadow-shrooms, Chili Beans, and Hypno-shrooms. If combined with at least five to ten Wizard Zombies, Zombie Kings, Knight Zombies, and Dark Ages Gargantuars, they can cause massive mayhem for your plants, neutralizing everything. If you do not break all the remaining graves, these zombies can be spawned during the Necromancy ambush, crowding the true threats of Dark Ages, such as Zombie King and Wizard Zombie.

Because a Ghost Pepper does not shoot projectiles, Jester Zombie will be affected by its screams. Use it, because its explosion can deal some damage. This is also useful against these and the other true threats of Dark Ages. It is best to use Plant Food on it.

Iceberg Lettuce and Stunion can temporarily immobilize the Jester, preventing it from deflecting the projectiles, so using it with Winter Melon is a good idea, especially its Plant Food upgrade in Arthur's Challenge. However, Winter Melon's normal projectiles will be thrown back, so a Wall-nut or any other defensive plant should be used as well.

Hot Date can attract him to its lane (so two Hot Dates in the 2nd and 4th lane are enough) and if he has deflected enough projectiles, Hot Date will explode. This applies to Explode-O-Nut.

Guacodile is a good way to damage Jester Zombies as well. Although Jesters can deflect Guacodiles' pits, Guacodiles will rush immediately when the pits hit them, and their rush attack can deal great damage on Jester Zombies, ultimately penetrating their deflection cyclone.

Dandelion (in the international version) is a bad idea to use against him. While Dandelion's projectiles cannot be deflected, they are extremely slow.

Lava Guava can be also a good idea against Jester Zombie, as it can deal great damage against him. This also applies to Ghost Pepper. Endurian can be also an effective way.

Phat Beets don't use solid projectiles, so they can kill Jesters with ease with their shockwaves. However, there must be enough of them, or the Jester may survive. Caulipower is good against this zombie, because the hypnosis beams cannot be deflected and the Jester Zombie will get hypnotized. When hypnotized, he will deflect projectiles from other zombies and return them.

**Do not** use Plant Food on the projectile-based plants when Jester Zombie is approaching. It will only compound your problems, as Jester Zombie will deflect all projectiles. Exceptions are Cabbage-pult's big cabbages, Melon-pult and Winter Melon's big melons, Split Pea, Pea Pod's giant pea, Citron's big plasma ball, Coconut Cannon's big bomb, Bowling Bulb's explosive projectile, Pepper-pult's big peppers, and Dusk Lobber's projectile; in other words, he cannot deflect projectiles exclusive to Plant Food abilities.

**Do not** use Bowling Bulb or Grapeshot in any level with this zombie (unless fed with Plant Food or if he is caught in the explosion) as its projectiles, when deflected, can deal damage to multiple plants, especially the orange bulb or grapes, making most of your plants die easily. In addition to that, avoid using Torchwoods against Jester Zombie, as the flaming peas (including the napalm ones) can deal so much damage to your plants that even an armored Tall-nut will not be able to absorb all the projectiles. Iceberg Lettuce's effect will be removed by the defrosting, unless the Jester Zombie is constantly hit by butter before he is spinning, while the Iceberg Lettuce has frozen him. Placing Grapeshot near Jester Zombie where it will instant-kill him is a must in order to prevent him from deflecting the grapes.

Spear-mint is a good plant to tackle this zombie. The Spikerocks, especially if they are high-level, can kill the Jester Zombie very quickly. Planting this mint at the start of the level is very effective. Additionally, Jesters can't deflect Spikerocks or harm them, as they are a melee plant.

### Arthur's Challenge

Jester Zombie serves as among the biggest threats due to his constant deflection of projectiles from powerful plants, leaving you no other choices than using others that do not shoot projectiles such as Magnifying Grass to deal him. If this zombie is compared with large numbers of Knight Zombies, Zombie Kings, Dark Ages Gargantuars, Wizard Zombies, and the surprise attacks, these zombies can cause an extremely massive havoc on your lanes. If you see Jester Zombies along with other Dark Ages zombies in large numbers, these combinations will cause you to lose the game, thus, causing you to risk spending money on Power Ups and Plant Food. You will need to have Cherry Bombs, Jalapenos, Iceberg Lettuces, Power Lilies, and their Imitater versions.

If you use Winter Melons, ensure that Winter Melons attack and slow Jester Zombie by splash damage, particularly from stronger zombies, such as Buckethead Peasants, Knight Zombies, and Dark Ages Gargantuars. Iceberg Lettuce and Stunion will significantly help here, especially with Plant Food. Cherry Bombs and Jalapenos are also effective against Jester Zombies, although Imp Dragon Zombies may minimize the effectiveness of such plants. If dealt with properly, Jester Zombies may be less of a threat than other zombies types, particularly Wizard Zombie and Dark Ages Gargantuar.

## Trivia

* Jester Zombie is the second zombie to throw back plants projectiles in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*, with the first being Hammer Zombie and the third being Nunchaku Zombie from Kongfu World. He could be compared to his Chinese counterparts as Jester Zombie is stronger, as he can deflect lobbed shots, but Jester Zombie is weaker in terms of health since it only absorbs 420 damage per shot compared to Hammer Zombie and Nunchaku Zombie's 600 damage per shot.
* He gains a slight speed boost while spinning.
* Jester Zombie cannot deflect projectiles from behind him. Homing Thistle is an exception: All his arrows will be deflected.
* If Jester Zombie deflects a boomerang shot by Bloomerang, it will not return to the Jester Zombie. It will attack the whole row of plants but the Bloomerang will grab it, nullifying its damage.
* If the plants are attacked by Snow Pea or Winter Melon, they will not be chilled (slowed down).
	+ However, he can be chilled and damaged by the splash of a Winter Melon. Also, they can be chilled by Snow Pea's Plant Food ability.
* Jester Zombie cannot deflect giant peas shot by Repeater and Pea Pod's Plant Food ability.
* In the Almanac, Jester Zombie had a bone sticking out of his arm prior to the 2.5.1 update.
* If Jester Zombie is damaged enough (after absorbing at least 210 damage per shot), the player can see the bone while he is spinning.
* When spinning, he is slightly translucent.
* The Thanksgiving costume of Jester Zombie has a different spinning appearance. However, its Birthdayz Costume uses the same as the normal Jester Zombie.
* Unarmed Potato Mines are unaffected by projectiles deflected from Jester Zombies, but armed Potato Mines get hit.
* While spinning, Jesters can destroy a Hypno-shroom without being affected by it. However, he can be hypnotized when he is not spinning. This is also true to Chili Bean, Sun Bean, Imp Pear and Shadow-shroom.
* In the Almanac, he appears to do the backstroke, a swimming move. This makes him the only zombie that has an unusual standing animation and when he moves, he just jumps. Also, when he is not spinning, his eyes appear to be spinning in circles.
* Like Zombie Bull, Zombie Chicken, Bug Bot Imp and Punk Zombie, he cannot be blown away by the Blover while jumping.
* A bell's sound will be played when just one Jester Zombie enters the lawn.
* All projectiles deflected by Jester Zombie can damage zombies.
* If he deflects a projectile to a hypnotized Jester Zombie, the projectile keeps going back and forth between them until they get close enough to bite each other.
* In the 3.2 update, he could not deflect Pepper-pult's projectiles.
* Infi-nut is the only plant that can survive Jester Zombie's projectiles because the projectiles will fail to hit the Infi-Nut's projector.
* Spring Bean and Chard Guard are the only plants that can cancel all of Jester Zombie's projectiles. They do this when knocking him back.
* Sometimes, he may not deflect the bulbs shot from Bowling Bulbs correctly, making them not hit any plant.
* So far, it is the third non-variant zombie to have more than one event costume (the first being the Thanksgiving costume and the second being the Birthdayz costume) with Poncho Zombie and Camel Zombies being the first and second.
* Stallia does not stall spinning Jester Zombies when they encounter them.
* Prior to the 4.7.1 update, when a Jester Zombie is hit by Dusk Lobber's projectile, he will deflect it off of the lawn, and do no damage to any plants.

* Chewliard is a pun on Julliard, which is a real school in New York City.
	+ Chewliard is also mentioned in Backup Dancer's Almanac entry, in both *Plants vs. Zombies* and *Plants vs. Zombies Heroes* (the card description, in the latter case).
* If one looks very closely during Jester Zombie's walking/jumping animation, his right leg detaches from the rest of his body for a split second.
* When Jester Zombie loses part of his arm while wearing his Thanksgiving costume, the rest of the arm will change color from white to blue (the same blue seen on his usual outfit).
* He cannot deflect Primal Peashooter's rock peas in the Chinese version.
* In his death animation, his torso detaches from his body.
* If you shoot a lot of peas to Jester Zombies (for example, using Plant Food on any kinds of pea-shooter plants or use Appease Mint) and then use Reinforce Mint right before Jester Zombie reflects all of these peas or projectiles, he will be knocked back and can no longer reflect the peas that he hasn't reflected. However, these peas still do no damage to him.
* Jester Zombie's reflect projects and lobbed shots will do no damage to Ghost Pepper. In fact, all of these projectiles will fly through her.
* If a Jester Zombie is hypnotized, he still has the ability to reflect the projectiles that are reflected by other Jester Zombies on his lawn. However, the projectiles he reflects will do damage to zombies, not the plants.
	+ If the reflected projectile is Pokra's spike launch, when reflected by the hypnotized Jester Zombie, this projectile will kill the other Jester Zombies on the row instantly (they can not reflect the launch anymore).

## See also

* Hammer Zombie
* Nunchaku Zombie
* All in Jest

es:Zombi bufón
ru:Зомби-шут
fr:Zombie Bouffon