Winter Melon

*Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.*

**Is immune to frost**

**You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here," "Ice Bingo," and "Surfin' Swedes."**

**Winter Melon** is the third plant available in Wild West Extra in *Alternate UniverZ*. He is a heavy plant that deals high damage in a 3x1 area alongside chilling damaged zombies. He can bypass obstructions such as the tombstones in Ancient Egypt and Dark Ages, and can target flying zombies like Jetpack Zombie.

Winter Melon is unlocked after beating WWX-VI.

## Almanac entry

**Winter Melon**

SUN COST: 500

RECHARGE: 45

TOUGHNESS: 300

DAMAGE: 80

FIRING RATE: 2.9

SPLASH DAMAGE: 40

RANGE: Lobbed

AREA: 3x1

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.
Special: immune to frost

You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here," "Ice Bingo," and "Surfin' Swedes."

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Winter Melon unleashes a barrage of giant freezing melons separated into four waves to all zombies on the field, dealing 200 direct damage and 80 splash damage, along with 10 seconds of freeze. If there is no valid target, a single melon per volley will be fired on a random tile.

## Costumes

* Current
* Pre 1.5

## Strategies

With his practical crowd control and heavy damage, Winter Melon can hold on his own against hordes of Buckethead Zombies while clearing out Zombie Chickens in the process. However, with his great sun cost and sluggish recharge, it is improbable that one can use only Winter Melon to win most levels, so he should still be used as a heavy supporting plant, rather than the player's sole offensive option.

To deploy Winter Melons earlier, make sure that you have an adequate defense to protect yourself until you save up for enough sun (e.g. Potato Mine, Iceberg Lettuce, Electrici-tea, etc.). Once you do get Winter Melons out, it is an effective plant that can aid other attacking plants like Repeater, Melon-pult and A.K.E.E. immensely.

Due to being an ice plant, Winter Melon is also useful in disabling Explorer Zombies, Prospector Zombies and Short-fused Prospectors, preventing them from burning through or bypassing the player's defense. However, this also means that he is weaker against Poncho Zombies as they are immune to chill, blocking his melons and allowing the aforementioned zombies to sneak through.

Winter Melon has good synergy with plants that cause zombies to cluster together, like Chard Guard or Infi-nut. Clustering allows the melons to deal more damage, and the melons' chilling effect means that the clustering plants will have more time to work well.

However, he also possess some weaknesses:

* Shield Zombies' shields can completely nullify the melon's chilling effect. Therefore, it is better to pair him with plants that can reliably deal with these zombies, such as Laser Bean and Fume-shroom.
* Parasol Zombies' parasols can deflect most lobbed projectiles (including Winter Melon's), thereby protecting her allies from Winter Melon's chilling effect entirely.
* Jester Zombies can reflect Winter Melon's projectile back at the plants, dealing heavy damage to your front lines, while the zombies themselves remain unharmed.

## Balance Changes

### Version 1.0.1

* Sun cost: 700 > 550
* Splash radius: 3x3 > 1x3

### Version 1.3

* Sun cost: 500 > 550
* Recharge: 60 > 45
* Starting recharge: 30 > 22.5

### Version 1.3.1

* Plant Food melons now freeze zombies for 5 seconds.
* Now has a 7.5s delay before first attack.