Lightning Reed

*Lightning Reeds shoot lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away. The bolt will then arc and hit other zombies.*

## Almanac statistics

### Unlocked by beating

WW-V

**This may come as a shock, but Lightning Reed has a serious passion for ham radio. His call sign is El3ctric H1ccup. You can tune in every Tuesday to hear him read the classics to elderly plants. This week: Seeds and Sensibility.**

**Lightning Reed** is the third plant available in Wild West in *Alternate UniverZ*. He will shoot the first zombie in adjacent lanes, and his bolts will arc to nearby zombies. He is mainly used for countering Zombie Chickens due to his low damage, but multi-target range.

Lightning Reed is unlocked after beating WW-V.

## Almanac entry

**Lightning Reed**

SUN COST: 175

RECHARGE: 7.5

TOUGHNESS: 300

DAMAGE: 10

FIRING RATE: 1.9

RANGE: Multi-Hit

Lightning Reeds shoot lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away. The bolt will then arc and hit other zombies.
This may come as a shock, but Lightning Reed has a serious passion for ham radio. His call sign is El3ctric H1ccup. You can tune in every Tuesday to hear him read the classics to elderly plants. This week: Seeds and Sensibility.

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Lightning Reed generates a small storm cloud that tracks down a random target, dealing great damage. If the target is defeated, the cloud will quickly move to another random zombie. The cloud lasts for 15 seconds before disappearing and can deal 3000 damage at max.

## Costumes

* Current
* Pre 1.5

## Strategies

Lightning Reed has significant strategically unique aspects. The chain attack can deal impressive damage against hordes of small and medium enemies, as damage output goes up when there are more targets to attack. Lightning Reed can also bypass or neutralize an extraordinary range of common threats and hazards. However, while Lightning Reed can deal impressive crowd damage, damage output may be less impressive against individual high health enemies. The player will likely need a plan plus support plants to address high healthed enemies.

Due to the lightning's chaining mechanic that can spread to multiple lanes, Lightning Reed is most effective when there are many targets and it is best to use many Lightning Reeds together. An isolated Lightning Reed will struggle to kill even a Basic Zombie, but when deployed in large numbers, ten or more Reeds will work together to rapidly kill a multitude of enemies at the same time. Having more enemies on screen maximizes chain attacks, which means that some defensive tactics can serve as damage multipliers. Any cold, slow, knockback, or stun effects, or any wall type plants synergise very well with them as they can help pile up enemies and increase damage output. Plant Food on an Infi-nut, or some Winter Melons can be extremely effective tactics to create, contain, and ultimately exterminate crowds of zombies. Chard Guard will also effectively pile up zombies, and can be useful to hold back a limited number of high-health zombies. Zoybean Pod also work quite well to slow or stop zombies from advancing.

Lightning Reed attacks cannot be blocked or reflected by any means. Therefore, this completely ignores the defenses and special abilities of Shield Zombies, Jester Zombies, Excavator Zombies, and Parasol Zombies. Excavator and Parasol Zombies in particular will sometimes appear together. That combination is normally difficult, as almost any attack plant will be completely unable to damage one of the two. Lightning Reed easily addresses both threats.

The attack speed and chain of Lightning Reeds will almost instantly erase Zombie Chickens from the board. A mere two Lightning Reeds (in rows 2 and 4) is sufficient to cover Zombie Chicken attacks across all five rows, although Ice Weasels or larger swarms of Zombie Chickens will require a modest group of Lightning Reeds to sweep them away before they can attack your plants.

The chain attacks are very effective in grinding down and chaining beyond obstacles such as tombstones, arcade cabinets, or entire rows of frozen zombies being pushed forwards. The chain damage can continue on to kill important targets behind such obstacles.

Chain damage is less effective against durable single targets like Buckethead Zombies or Gargantuars. Buckethead Zombies can however be countered with the support of one or more Magnet-shrooms, making certain levels very easy. Strong splash-damage or strong single-target plants such as Citron, Melon-pult, or Coconut Cannon may also be effective support with Lightning Reed.

## Balance Changes

### Version 1.1

* Sun cost: 200 > 75
* Recharge: 7.5 > 15
* Damage: 10 > 5
* Attack speed: 1.4 > 1.9
* Lightning bounces: 4 > 6

### Version 1.6

* Sun cost: 75 > 200
* Damage: 5 > 10
* Lightning bounces: 8 > 3
	+ Dev Note: Yes, we get it. You all hate Lightning Reed. This is why we're semi-reverting him to his 1.0 stats - he will still deal well with chickens, imps and such but will no longer struggle so much against heavier threats.