Pianist Zombie

* Cowboy
* Feastivus

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

## Almanac statistics

### Special

Causes cowboy zombies to dance and switch lanes every few seconds

### Damage

Deals four times more damage with his piano

## In-game statistics

### First seen

WW-III

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

**Pianist Zombie** is the third special zombie encountered in Wild West in *Alternate UniverZ*. He rolls over plants, doing great damage and killing most quickly, and causes all Cowboy Zombies, Conehead Cowboys and Buckethead Cowboys on the screen to dance and change lanes every few seconds. He instantly dies if he encounters a Spikeweed, a Spikerock or a Cactus. Pianist music can be heard immediately when he spawns, but the cowboy zombies will only start dancing once he enters the lawn.

## Caroling Pianist

*His sweet holiday tunes cause cowboy zombies to dance.*

## Almanac statistics

### Special

Causes cowboy zombies to dance and switch lanes every few secondsImmune to chill

### Damage

Deals four times more damage with his piano

## In-game statistics

### First seen

HC-II

Sure, he's a zombie. Sure, the only words he knows are 15 variations of "brains". However, you gotta appreciate his spirit. Man's making Feastivus all that happier on the zombies' floral deathbed.

**Caroling Pianist** is the third special zombie encountered in Holiday Cheer in *Alternate UniverZ*. He rolls over plants, doing great damage and killing most quickly, and causes all Cowboy Zombies, Conehead Cowboys and Buckethead Cowboys on the screen to dance and change lanes every few seconds. Not only that, but he is also resistant to chilling of any kind. He instantly dies if he encounters a Spikeweed, a Spikerock or a Cactus. Festive pianist music can be heard immediately when he spawns, but the cowboy zombies will only start dancing once he enters the lawn.

## Almanac entry

* Cowboy
* Feastivus

**Pianist Zombie**

TOUGHNESS: Hardened

SPEED: Creeper

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

Health: 840
Speed: 0.65
Damage: deals four times more damage with his piano
Special Ability: causes cowboy zombies to dance and switch lanes every few seconds

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

**Caroling Pianist**

TOUGHNESS: Dense

SPEED: Basic

His sweet holiday tunes cause cowboy zombies to dance.

Health: 650
Speed: 0.92
Damage: deals four times more damage with his piano
Special Ability: causes cowboy zombies to dance and switch lanes every few seconds
Extra Ability: immune to chill

Sure, he's a zombie. Sure, the only words he knows are 15 variations of "brains". However, you gotta appreciate his spirit. Man's making Feastivus all that happier on the zombies' floral deathbed.

## Overview

Pianist Zombie absorbs a total of 840 damage and he loses his left arm at 420 damage before dying, while Caroling Pianist absorbs a total of 650 damage and he loses his left arm 325 damage before dying.

## Encounters

### Pianist Zombie

* Player's House: Piñata Party

* Wild West: WW-III, WW-IV, WW-VI, WW-IX, WW-X, WWX-II, WWX-III, WWX-V and WWX-VII

* Summer Splashdown: SS-VI

* Lawn of Doom: LOD-VII

* Heroic Showdown: HS-VII, HS-VIII, HS-IX and HS-X

* The Breakroom: TB-III

* Plant Showcase: Natural Medication and Ultimate Destruction

* Timeless Avenue: Netronome, Roguelike Hunt and Bait and Switch

* Invaded Levels: Invaded AEX-IV, Invaded PSX-VIII and Invaded WW-IV

* When Worlds Flourish: 1

* Endless Zones: Big Bad Butte and Celebratory Carousel Crash

* Veteran Quests: Old Noon Flashback

### Caroling Pianist

* Player's House: Piñata Party

* Holiday Cheer: HC-II, HC-III and HC-V

* Cheerful Return: HC-VIII and HC-XIII

* Birthday Bashers: BB-VIII

* Heroic Showdown: HS-VII, HS-VIII, HS-IX and HS-X

* Seasonal Eggbreaker: EB-III

* Plant Showcase: Butter Building

* When Worlds Flourish: 14

* Endless Zones: Celebratory Carousel Crash

## 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. 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 insta-kill plant. 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.

Do not use plants such as Cabbage-pult, Citron, Spore-shroom, Blooming Heart or Electric Blueberry 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 deal splash damage and can only kill one zombie at a time. Bonk Choys, Snapdragons, Puff-shroomsand 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. Toadstools are also useless as they cannot instantly devour the Pianist Zombie (and only deal damage to him) while other zombies will quickly overwhelm them.