Red Stinger

*Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home and become more defensive the further from it they get.*

## Almanac statistics

### Unlocked by beating

LC-I

**Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."**

**Red Stinger** is the first plant available in Lost City in *Alternate UniverZ*. He has three forms: when planted on the two columns closest to the house, he shoots petals at approaching zombies that have slightly more damage than a Peashooter overall. When planted on the next two column to the right, he becomes defensive, losing half of his attack damage but gaining doubled toughness. His health triples but he loses his attack when planted anywhere else.

Red Stinger is unlocked after beating LC-I.

## Almanac entry

**Red Stinger**

SUN COST: 100

RECHARGE: 7.5

TOUGHNESS: 600

DAMAGE: 20

FIRING RATE: 2.4

RANGE: Straight

Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home and become more defensive the further from it they get.
Offensive State: fires 2 projectiles, available on column 1 and 2
Defensive State: fires 1 projectile, doubles its health, available on column 3 and 4
Cover State: doesn't attack, triples its health, available on all other columns

Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Red Stinger fires a laser that deals 600 damage in total and slows down all zombies in the lane in 4 seconds.

## Costumes

* Current
* Pre 1.5

## Strategies

The game put a lot of emphasis on Red Stinger's versatility; depending on the location, he can work as a slightly more powerful Peashooter, a slightly less powerful Peashooter with increased toughness, or a weak defensive plant with faster recharge.

Red Stinger's most useful form by far is the fully offensive form, where he effectively acts as a more powerful Peashooter with more damage (an astounding x1.2 of a Peashooter's damage per second). This makes him a very economical option with a great damage/cost ratio, allowing for a fairly capable setup near the beginning of a level. When in this form, Red Stinger combines a reasonably fast rate of fire with fair damage, allowing him to take out weaker zombies as well as some stronger zombies such as Conehead Zombies. This can be effective against most zombies in Lost City as they are fairly weak, meaning that they can be defeated easily by Red Stinger.

Red Stinger cannot take out stronger zombies such as Buckethead Zombies very easily, so he needs to be used with harder hitting plants like Citron, Winter Melon or defensive plants when facing these. Do not rely on his Plant Food effect to take out Gargantuars, because it deals relatively low damage compared to other plants and also only hits one lane, though it does slow them down effectively.

When planted in the third to fourth columns, Red Stinger acts like a slightly weaker Peashooter with increased damage, though this is generally not recommended to be used on its own, since his damage is pretty low. However, it can be useful as an effective shield against ambushes. In Lost City specifically, he can be helpful in combating Lost Pilot Zombies as well as Relic Hunter Zombies, as his elevated health helps him survive the ambush much better than other offensive plants.

When planted in the fifth to ninth columns Red Stinger acts like a weak defensive plant with faster recharge. He has fairly low health, less than half of that of a Wall-nut for double the price. The main attraction of this phase is its recharge, which means that you can replace or replenish meatshields quickly, therefore stalling the zombies effectively. However, this cannot work in levels with Excavator Zombies or Turquoise Skull Zombies as they will rip through these meatshields with relative ease.

Red Stinger should not be as the only offensive plant in levels with Excavator Zombie, and plants that can bypass his shovel such as A.K.E.E. and Laser Bean should be used in tandem with him. If Excavator Zombies get too close to your plants, his Plant Food effect can take them out quite easily, and will also slow him down, which may prevent him from digging up a plant if he is just about to. However, this will only affect the zombies in one lane. Also, do not use him in levels with Jester Zombies, as they will reflect the petals and deal damage to your plants, forcing you to use Plant Food to take them out.

## Balance Changes

### Version 1.5.2

* Damage: 15 -> 20
* Attack speed: 1.9s -> 2.4s
* No longer has 0s starting cooldown