Chomper

*Chompers can devour a zombie whole, but they are vulnerable while chewing.*

**Everyone appreciates what Chomper does. His appetite has saved them on numerous occasions. But truth be told, Chomper's friends think that eating zombies is gross. And his breath! No one has the heart to tell him, and he never gets the hint when you offer him a mint.**

**Chomper** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the sixth plant obtained in Big Wave Beach. He is unlocked at Big Wave Beach - Day 35.

Chomper can devour most types of zombies, instantly killing them in the process. However, after eating an enemy, Chomper will require a large amount of time to devour the victim, making him vulnerable, exposing himself to other zombies' attacks in the process. When faced with inedible targets such as tombstones, mechanical threats and Gargantuars, Chomper will instead repeatedly chomp them, dealing 200 damage per chomp.

Chompers cannot consume the following zombies, but will attack them (every 1.5 seconds) and deal damage without eating or chewing them:

* Gargantuar variants
* Barrel Roller Zombie (with his barrel)
* Imp Cannon
* Pianist Zombie
* Zombie Chicken and Ice Weasel
* Zombie Bull and its veteran variant
* Robo-Cone Zombie
* Disco-tron 3000
* Mecha-Football Zombie
* Zombie King
* Fisherman Zombie
* Robo Dodo Rider
* Coal Miner Zombie's cart
* Coal Imp
* Mechanic Zombie
* Clockwork Zombie

## Almanac entry

**Chomper**

Chompers can devour a zombie whole, but they are vulnerable while chewing.

Special: takes 12 seconds to swallow a zombie

Everyone appreciates what Chomper does. His appetite has saved them on numerous occasions. But truth be told, Chomper's friends think that eating zombies is gross. And his breath! No one has the heart to tell him, and he never gets the hint when you offer him a mint.

## Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Chomper will unleash a high-intensity wind that drags the ten nearest zombies in his lane, devouring them whole. He then burps, pushing back all zombies left in the lane.

If Chomper pulls in any inedible zombies, he will deal 1000 damage to those targets. Note that Chomper won't perform his "burp" attack if no zombies are devoured.

## Strategies

Chomper has the shortest digestion time of any Chomper-like plant, but also has the shortest range of them all - asides from Olive Pit, whose range is mitigated from its ability to be planted near the right side of the lawn - with Chomper only targeting zombies in close range. Because of these factors, Chompers are best utilised along the front line of the defense, taking out various endangering zombies like Brickhead Zombie, Excavator Zombie or Newspaper Zombie that would otherwise overrun the defense.

Chomper works notably well with wall plants, protecting him during digestion. Alternatively, his range also allows for instead planting two Chompers alongside one another in the same lane, with the back-most Chomper taking down zombies that start to eat the front-most Chomper. However, the front-most Chomper will eventually be eaten due to the back-most Chomper's limited range. As such, Pumpkin can be planted on top of the front-most Chomper to protect him, combining the benefits of wall plants and double Chompers.

While Chomper's single target capabilities are great, he lacks the ability to deal with larger hordes. Supplementing Chomper with multi-hit or area of effect plants like Bloomerang and Laser Bean will allow for weeding out large hordes more easily, which can also serve to defeat low health zombies that may otherwise be consumed by Chomper, wasting his attack.

Chomper can also be used as a replacement for a single-use plant due to his ability to instantly devour zombies. Doing so requires shoveling upgrades, which can reduce Chomper's effective sun cost to be on par with traditional alternatives like Chili Bean and Shadow-shroom. Chomper has a short delay between planting and chomping zombies, so planting him in front of zombies is needed avoid Chomper being potentially eaten before chomping. Also, keep his sluggish recharge in mind when using Chomper this way, as doing so will make it more difficult to replace Chompers within the main defense if they get destroyed.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

* ▲ -5 seconds chew speed
* ▲ +7 Zombies able to be swallowed with Plant Food
* ▼ +50 sun
* ▼ +15 second recharge
* ▼ Only chomps one zombie prior to chewing
	+ Not listed in the changelogs.

### Version 1.1.4

* ▲ Sun Cost: 200 -> 175
* Target audience: Casuals
	+ Developer note: Chomper has always had trouble resonating with casual players due to his innate design. He is a beast at killing off zombies, but in order for that to work, he needs to be placed far enough in the front to actually reach any zombies. As addressed with melee plants, when a plant is in the front, it needs better protection. Failure of protection means you gotta spend all that sun again to plant it back. That’s why we decided to push Chomper out a bit more by reducing his price. With a lower price, the cost of having to replace one which has been downed is now softened a bit.

## See also

### Chomper-like plants

* Toadstool
* Snap Pea
* Olive Pit