Rodeo Legend Zombie

Rodeo Legend Zombie smashes a plant and launches his zombie rider past most of your defenses.

## In-game statistics

### In-game speed

Flighty (when charging), then Stiff (when walking)

### Weakness

 (disables)
  (can prevent it from charging further)
 (with Plant Food; stops charge attack and blocks flying Zombie Bull Rider)
       (cannot be destroyed)
     (knocks them back)
   (when hiding)
      (triggers their attacks)
  (can stop several charge attacks and blocks the flying Zombie Bull Rider)
  (can stop several charge attacks, but cannot block Zombie Bull Rider)

### First seen

Wild West - Day 32

"Legend" perhaps overstates Rodeo Legend Zombie's status in the rodeo world. Don't tell him that, though, unless you're desperate to hear an hour-long tirade about calf-roping.

**Rodeo Legend Zombie** is a zombie that appears in the Wild West expansion in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. It is the upgraded version of Zombie Bull. Unlike Zombie Bull, it runs faster and rams into the first plant it meets, either heavily damaging that plant or instantly destroying it. After that, it will charge again after 3 seconds. However, like Zombie Bull, it can be stunned by an E.M.Peach to give the player more time to deal with it.

## Almanac entry

**Rodeo Legend Zombie**

TOUGHNESS: Hardened

SPEED: Hungry

Rodeo Legend Zombie smashes a plant and launches his zombie rider past most of your defenses.

"Legend" perhaps overstates Rodeo Legend Zombie's status in the rodeo world. Don't tell him that, though, unless you're desperate to hear an hour-long tirade about calf-roping.

## Encounters

Wild West: Days 32, 33, 34 and 35

Modern Day: Day 32

Arena: Blastberry Vine & Friends VS Zomboss

## Overview

Rodeo Legend Zombie absorbs 1400 damage per shot, and its appearance changes upon absorbing 460 and 940 before dying at 1400 damage per shot. Rodeo Legend Zombie deals 2000 damage per shot to the smashed plant. It also eats plants at a x1.5 faster rate than an average Basic Zombie.

## Strategies

This is a very dangerous zombie, especially with its extra ability and increased speed, as most defensive plants will be severely damaged or even destroyed. Kill it quickly, as it can smash an unlimited amount of plants in its lane. Groups of Rodeo Legend Zombies may cause you to lose the game easily without the right defenses and lead to you spending Plant Food or Power Ups to get rid of them. Primal Wall-nut is a good choice because of its fast recharge.

It is recommended to use Kernel-pult, Iceberg Lettuce, Stunion, or E.M.Peach to stun the Rodeo Legend Zombie before it launches its Zombie Bull Rider as it can damage a plant during this attempt as well. Plants such as Pea Pod (with 5 heads), Torchwood (with peashooting plants), Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Grapeshot, Electric Peashooter, and Bowling Bulbs can assist in dealing high damage to this zombie.

Sacrificial plants such as Puff-shroom or Sun-shroom can be good as a primary staller for this zombie. However, when they come in groups, such as in Wild West - Day 33, they may be overwhelmed, since they have to recharge. Spore-shrooms are also effective when this zombie appears with some other zombies as they will create a new Spore-shroom which will stall it, even when charging towards your plants. Infi-nut's Plant Food effect can be used to block this zombie.

Spring Bean, Chard Guard, and Primal Peashooter are good choices, since it can bounce back this zombie when he is charging and stop it. However, the Spring Bean must be awake for this to work. Using it with Blover is also a good idea. Primal Peashooters can push back the Rodeo Legend Zombie when it charges towards your plants. Rodeo Legend Zombie will not attack Ghost Pepper or any underground plants such as Spikeweed, Spikerock, Cactus, and Celery Stalker. Due to this, these plants are a good way to defeat these zombies. Guacodiles, Lava Guava, Explode-O-Nut, or Hot Date are also useful against the zombie as they will trigger the attacks instead of destroying these plants, greatly damaging it.

Tall-nut is highly useful against the zombie because the Tall-nut can not only block the Zombie Bull Rider the same way it can block them when thrown from Zombie Bulls, but it also ignores damage caused by impact of being hit. Using Infi-nut is also a great idea. If it charges at an Infi-nut, even if it is still regenerating health, it will still stop its charge attack. Not only that, but it will back up a tiny bit, and before it arrives at the Infi-nut, it will be ready to charge. This means one Infi-nut per row will stop all Rodeo Legend Zombie attacks.

**Note:** Bonk Choys, Snapdragons, Phat Beets, and Cold Snapdragons are useless (unless fed with Plant Food) as they can only attack from a very short range. While the Rodeo Legend Zombie is charging, avoid placing these plants near it, as they will hardly damage it and will easily get destroyed. Homing Thistles are also useless, as they can easily be distracted by other zombies, especially if Chicken Wrangler Zombies, Prospector Zombies, or Pianist Zombies (with other Cowboy Zombies) appear and therefore, they will have a hard time trying to take this zombie out. Citrons are also ineffective against it unless fed with Plant Food, as they fire very slowly compared to other plants and these zombies are very fast, and the increased damage will not be enough to fend them off. Nightshades without Plant Food are not useful either because they have too low of a range when not powered and regenerate projectiles too slowly when powered. Chomper and Toadstools are also a very bad idea, as they cannot devour the Rodeo Legend Zombies and will only attack them while they can easily destroy your Chompers and Toadstools. In addition, using Plant Food on these plants against this zombie is also useless. Also, avoid using Parsnip against it as, unlike Guacodile, it will destroy it without making it rush.

Hypno-shroom or Caulipower, if timed right, can hypnotize this zombie, and it will charge at other zombies instead of your plants, so they work well as counters against this zombie.

### With Wild West Gargantuars

A combination of Rodeo Legend Zombies and Wild West Gargantuars can be very threatening, as they both have high health, move very fast, and have Zombie Bull Riders that can easily cause huge problems if thrown to your backmost defenses. To prevent this, you should keep at least a Blover or Hurrikale at your disposal. All normal instant kill plants except Chili Bean, Primal Potato Mine, or possibly Grapeshot may require at least two strikes to kill the Rodeo Legend Zombie itself. Stalling or delaying them with Primal Peashooters, Apple Mortars, Kernel-pult and other plants with offensive and immobilizing powers may be required. Shrinking Violet is also useful as this prevents them from launching their Zombie Bull Riders and gives Jack O' Lantern, Banana Launcher, and Missile Toe the ability to kill the Rodeo Legend Zombie instantly.

## Gallery

Almanac entry part 1Almanac entry part 2HD Rodeo Legend ZombieIn-gameA glowing Rodeo Legend ZomboeCharging without Zombie Bull RiderFirst degradeSecond degradeDefeated Rodeo Legend ZombieButtered Rodeo Legend ZombiePoisoned Rodeo Legend Zombie with Zombie Bull RiderPoisoned Rodeo Legend Zombie without Zombie Bull RiderA Rodeo Legend Zombie near a Tall-nutDefeated Rodeo Legend Zombie with its riderHypnotised Rodeo legend about to launch zombie bull riderAlmanac texture
## Trivia

* It and Jurassic Rockpuncher are the only veteran zombies to have a unique ability compared to their downgrades.
* Despite the fact its speed is listed in the Almanac as Hungry, its actual speed when charging is Flighty and its speed when not charging is Stiff.
* Whenever the bull is about to charge at plants, its eyebrows change to a blondish-orange color, due to the animations being re-used from the Zombie Bull.
* It is possible for the bull to throw the imp directly into the player's house, even when hypnotized, causing the player to lose instantly.
* In Wild West - Day 35, it is not spawned by Zombot War Wagon. Instead it comes surprisingly from the zombie side, despite not being encountered in the zombie preview.

## See also

* Zombie Bull
* Imp