Escape Root

*Escape Roots explode upon being crushed, and can be swapped with other plants that are in danger.*

### Special

Tap Escape Root and another plant to swap them

## In-game statistics

### Codename alias

escaperoot

**The other plants put on a big surprise party for Escape Root last week, but he did his thing and suddenly it was a surprise party...FOR THEM!**

Escape Root is a premium plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished*. He costs 75 gems to purchase.

Escape Root is a manual use plant that can be controlled to swap places with other plants. He also has the explosive, single-use properties of a Potato Mine, arming himself after 10 seconds or after swapping places with a plant. Once armed, Escape Root explodes upon being crushed by certain zombies, dealing 1500 damage to zombies in a 1.5x1.5 area. Other zombies can eat Escape Root without triggering the explosion, however.

## Almanac entry

**Escape Root**

Escape Roots explode upon being crushed, and can be swapped with other plants that are in danger.

Special: tap Escape Root and another plant to swap them

The other plants put on a big surprise party for Escape Root last week, but he did his thing and suddenly it was a surprise party...FOR THEM!

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Escape Root summons five copies of itself near random zombies, which immediately explode.

If Escape Root attempts to summon a copy on a tile that is currently occupied by a plant or obstacle, that copy will not be spawned. If there are no zombies on the lawn, no copies are spawned.

## Strategies

Escape Root can be used as a substitute for the minecarts of Wild West. If there is an important plant that takes a while to set up multiple of, such as Pea Pod, Ultomato or Winter Melon, Escape Root can be used to move these plants wherever they are most needed. Deploying multiple Escape Roots can be compared to building a minecart rail, forming several positions to which important plants can be transported.

Escape Root is capable of swapping with any standard plant, including those that can't go on minecarts, such as Banana Launcher and Lava Guava. Only plants already on a minecart, as well as endangered plants in Save Our Seeds levels, are exempt from being movable. Plants like Spore-shroom and Kiwibeast also benefit; their abilities lend to being planted or spawned at the front of lawn, after which Escape Root can pull them back to safety. By using sun shoveling upgrades, most of Escape Root's cost can then be recovered to save plants at a great discount.

While Escape Root can be eaten by most zombies, some zombies that can crush plants, including Jurassic Rockpuncher, Gargantuar and All-Star Zombie, will cause Escape Root to detonate. Whenever an explosion is triggered, both the crushing zombie and any other zombies in a small radius will take huge damage, a helpful utility in levels that contain these zombies. Keep in mind that utilising this effect requires minding Escape Root's arming time; swapping plants will skip the arming time, which can be done with cheap and/or expendable plants such as Puff-shroom and Chili Bean.

Escape Root can also be used to rescue important plants that are about to be eaten. While he won't explode when pitted against most zombies unlike his Vanilla counterpart, his elevated health will be able to hold endangering zombies for a short time, buying time to handle those zombies through other plants.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

* ▼ +5 second recharge
* ▼ -1780 damage
* ▼ No longer swaps into explosive Plants
* ▼ Cannot swap with endangered Plants

### Version 1.1

* ▲ Sun Cost: 50 -> 25
* ▲ Damage: 20 -> 3600
* ▲ Removed cooldown between swaps.
* Is now edible.

### Version 1.1.4

* ▲ Recharge: 25 -> 10
* ▲ Toughness: 300 -> 1000
* ▲ Explosion Area of Effect: 1x1 -> 1.5 x 1.5
* ▼ Sun Cost: 25 -> 100
* ▼ Explosion Damage: 3600 -> 1500
* Target audience: General
	+ Developer note: Our last change to Escape Root saw him get a huge bump in explosion damage, encouraging many to use him as a counter to crushing zombies like Gargantuar. Many in both the team and the community enjoyed this change (it's extremely funny), but one of Escape Root's issues remained: his switching. There was that question of "and then what?" after he completed a swap that left something to be desired, leaving what was once his main function very situational, and sometimes completely ignored. So we worked out a solution that answers that question, while still retaining his popular crusher-killer potential! An increased health will give the zombies something to chew on for a while after a swap, serving as a strong frontline defense that's consistent thanks to a decrease in recharge. The recharge decrease also lets him more consistently punish crushers; for example, an emergency switch against All-Star Zombie can protect one of your frontline plants and completely destroy the zombie in the process! And as fun as it is, a Garg Repellent™️ every 10 seconds is rather powerful. Because of this, we've decreased his explosion damage to 1500, allowing him to demolish all other crushers, while still leaving a hefty dent against Gargantuar. As a bonus, we've also increased the explosion radius, just to retain that satisfying kick the blast always had.

### Version 1.2

* ▲ PF Duplicate Count: 2 -> 5
	+ Developer note: An effect that became a tad weaker after our last change. Plus, did you know that sometimes, this effect can (partially) fail? Like if there's some other plant in the way or somethin'? Isn't that screwed up? This change accommodates for both factors.

### Version 1.2.1

* ▲ Cost: 100 -> 50
	+ Developer note: A reduction in his sun cost was found to best suit Escape Root's new functionality as an easy to plant mini wall, as well as his role as a cost-efficient switcher.