Cactus

*Cactus fires a penetrating thorn that can damage multiple enemies!*

**Things have really changed for Cactus lately. Book deals, movies, truck show appearances... she's just trying to focus on staying humble and launching thorns like always.**

**Cactus** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the fourth plant obtained in Holiday Mashup. She is unlocked at Holiday Mashup - Day 13.

Cactus shoots a spike every 2 seconds that randomly goes through three or four zombies, dealing 35 damage each. She also hides when zombies are close to her, switching to a Spikeweed-like form that deals 12 damage every 0.5 seconds to zombies that walk over her.

## Almanac entry

**Cactus**

```
Cactus fires a penetrating thorn that can damage multiple enemies!

```

Special: hides and does ground damage when zombies are near

```
Things have really changed for Cactus lately. Book deals, movies, truck show appearances... she's just trying to focus on staying humble and launching thorns like always.

```

## Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Cactus' spikes become supercharged with electricity, increasing her maximum penetration capability by two. Cactus will also deal doubled damage for the remaining duration of her life, whether she is shooting or hiding underground. After this, Cactus can no longer be fed Plant Food.

## Strategies

At her core, Cactus is a mashup of Bloomerang and Spikeweed into one plant; as such, she inherits many of the traits of these two plants. From Bloomerang comes the ranged power of piercing spikes, dealing good damage to multiple zombies at once while damaging any obstacles in the way. As Cactus' spikes do not return to her like boomerangs do, she will be unable to deal with Jester Zombie and Excavator Zombie, so avoid using her in levels that have them.

Cactus' ability to swap to a Spikeweed-like form is where this plant gets interesting, being able to hurt any number of zombies while being untouchable by most zombie types. Thanks to this second form, Cactus has a great level of flexibility that isn't afforded to any other plant: She can be in column 3 to help catch Imps that get thrown by Gargantuars, or become an excess sun dump by being planted in front of the main defense to deal extra damage. Keep in mind that like Spikeweed, enemies such as Excavator Zombie and Pianist Zombie can move or crush Cactus, making her task as a sun dump less helpful in levels that contain these zombies.

If there is only a need for one of Cactus' forms in a strategy, it may be better to instead use the plant related to that form. Bloomerang is a more cost-efficient choice for multi-hit damage with little loss to the maximum damage output (about -0.5 hits per shot), while also being able to deal with more zombie types as aforementioned. As for Spikeweed, his much, much cheaper price allows him to cover the right side of the lawn much, much faster.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

* ▲ +1 pierce target
* ▼ +50 sun

### Version 1.1.4

* ▲ Projectile Damage: 30 -> 35
* ▲ Plant Food Projectile Damage: 60 -> 70
* ▲ Ground Damage: 10 -> 12
* ▲ Plant Food Ground Damage: 20 -> 24
* ▼ Sun Cost: 225 -> 250
* Target audience: General
	+ Developer note: A small overall damage buff to both her projectile and ground damage should help push Cactus into a more viable spot as a piercer. We also upped the plant food damage as a result, but increased the sun cost to both keep her in check and differentiate her more from Bloomerang.

## Trivia

* Cactus' "Log Bait" costume is based on Spear Goblins from *Clash Royale*.
	+ The name of this costume is a reference to a well known term amongst *Clash Royale* players, which Spear Goblins happen to be one of.
	+ Additionally, this costume is Spear Goblin's developer costume, one of the level designers for the mod.
* Cactus' "Cripple Pear" costume is based on the Cripple MOAB, an upgrade for the Sniper Monkey from the Bloons TD series.
	+ More specifically, the "Cripple Pear" costume is based on the upgrade's design in *Bloons TD 6*.
* Cactus' "Glory of Olympus" costume is Raducu's developer costume, an artist and animator for the mod.
* Cactus' "Lucky Cactus" costume is based on Nagito Komaeda from *Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair*.
	+ Additionally, this costume is Jean's developer costume, an artist and animator for the mod.