Spikeweed (PvZ2)

*For other uses, see Spikeweed (disambiguation).*

## **Spikeweed**

Spikeweeds destroy one rolling zombie and hurt any zombies that step on them.

Although Spikeweed grew up on the seedy side of town, his acupuncture business has been blooming.

**Spikeweed** is an area-of-effect plant available in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. He is normally ignored by most types of zombies, and can deal damage to any grounded enemy that walks on top of him at a rate equal to 4/3 of a Peashooter. When encountering certain enemies such as Barrel Roller Zombie's barrel and Pianist Zombie, Spikeweed will instead kill the unit instantly, and will be destroyed by the unit as well.

## About

*For more information about this character, see Spikeweed.*
Spikeweed is unlocked after beating Pirate Seas - Day 6. He attacks 1.9 times a second or once every 0.526 seconds, dealing 10 damage per shot of damage for each attack. He can no longer be upgraded to Spikerock, due to the removal of the upgrade plant mechanic, and Spikerock is now a seperate plant. Additionally, he can now be planted on Lily Pad unlike most other underground plants in the Big Wave Beach, but only function properly if there is no water under its tile; zombies can otherwise attack Lily Pad and indirectly destroy Spikeweed in the process.

Spikeweed can instantly defeat the following enemies:

* Barrel Roller Zombie's barrel (will instantly release Imp Pirate Zombies)
* Pianist Zombie

## Almanac entry

**Note: The stats shown below only apply to Level 1.**

**Spikeweed**

SUN COST: 100

RECHARGE: 5

TOUGHNESS: 300

DAMAGE: 10

AREA: Tile

FAMILY: Spear-mint

Spikeweeds destroy one rolling zombie and hurt any zombies that step on them.

Special: can't be eaten by zombies
Weakness: crushed by rolling zombies

Although Spikeweed grew up on the seedy side of town, his acupuncture business has been blooming.

## Upgrades

### Plant Food effect

When fed Plant Food, Spikeweed covers the entire lane he is placed in with spikes, dealing 720 damage over 4.5 seconds to all grounded enemies and drawing them towards Spikeweed's position. Spikeweed is invulnerable for the duration of the effect, and can destroy Pianist Zombies and barrels without consuming himself upon contact. If this occurs when Spikeweed is in a minecart, he may not be moved.

### Spear-mint effect

When boosted by Spear-mint, Spikeweed will do an additional 40 DPS on his attack.

### Level upgrade (China only)

 Combat Training
 Cell Activation

**Note: Spikeweed can't be upgraded to level 4.**

## Strategies

The Plant Food upgrade for Spikeweed (similar to Spikerock) can draw zombies towards him. As such, planting a Spikeweed at the rightmost side of the level and feeding him Plant Food will cause the zombie to return to the start and allow for your main offensive plants to do up to twice the amount of damage, assuming the zombie is tough enough. He can also be used in an emergency if any zombies get too close to your lawn mowers or as a defense against enemies thrown or able to jump over your defense. You can also draw zombies that have already exited the lawn and about to eat your brains back onto the lawn with Plant Food.

The Plant Food-fed Spikeweed does not do a lot of damage (enough to kill a little more than a normal zombie), so do not waste your Plant Food on him unless you are using him for the purpose of "drawing-in" zombies as mentioned above. Any crushing zombies like Pianist Zombie and Barrel Roller Zombie will be destroyed instantly upon contact, but at the sacrifice of the Spikeweed. He will also stop swarms of Zombie Chickens released by the Chicken Wrangler Zombie if they get past your other plants.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, Spikeweeds are useful for fighting against Punk Zombies, Glitter Zombies, MC Zom-Bs, and Boombox Zombies, as they cannot harm him, and have relatively low health, so they can weaken them enough for your main offensive plant to finish the job.

In Jurassic Marsh, Spikeweed can be used to fight enemies deployed by Pterodactyls, although Spikerock is often a better candidate due to his higher damage potential.

**Note:** Using Spikeweeds on Lily Pads in Big Wave Beach is a very bad idea, as zombies will eat the Lily Pad and cause the Spikeweed to fall into the water, thus wasting 100 sun in process. Therefore, avoid bringing Spikeweeds and Spikerocks in Big Wave Beach, as the Lily Pads eaten by zombies and the Spikeweed falling into the water, thus being usually worthless.

However, it's very beneficial in the Wild West levels to use against almost all the zombies, especially with Prospector Zombie and Zombie Bull Rider which leap over your plants, so they can be good in the first column. A Spikeweed in every lane can effectively combat Zombie Chickens. Another strategy allows you to use the carts in order to keep a Wild West Gargantuar from moving ahead by moving it as soon as he lifts his hammer. In Frostbite Caves levels, it's good to place them next to any slider tiles where the zombies will shift to. If you have any plants that can push back zombies such as Chard Guard or Kiwibeast, then it can be useful to combine them with Spikeweed so they have to walk through the gauntlet again.

It is not advised to use Spikeweed against Troglobites, Excavator Zombies, Gargantuar, and Arcade Zombies as the former can instantly kill him by pushing ice blocks or arcade machine onto his square, and the latter will shovel him up without stepping on him.

In "Do not let the zombies trample the flowers" challenge, player may plant Spikeweed ON the flowers to block the zombies from trampling the flowers, make the level easier to beat. The same thing happens with Spikerock, Celery Stalker, and Cactus.

## Trivia

* His costume resembles Groucho Marx.
* He is the second plant in this game that went through a major redesign. The other plants are Grave Buster, Starfruit and Tangle Kelp.
* Somehow, he, Spikerock, and Cactus damage helmets from headwear zombies, despite them logically hurting their feet.
* Formerly, there was a visual glitch with his seed packet where the lightning bolt is always brown no matter what level he is. He shares this trait with Spikerock. This was fixed in the recent update.

### Specific to the Chinese version (China only)

* Sometimes, his spikes change from yellow-green to silver-black and back again. It is unknown what causes this.